22 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



fore condescended to regulate the prices of the 

 different sorts of fish then brought to market, 

 fixed the value of pike higher than that of fresh 

 salmon, and more than ten times greater than 

 that of the best turbot or cod. 



Those patriarchal times have changed. Fish 

 Rings are no longer deposed by Fish Kings, 

 and fish goes up in price from year to year. 

 For fresh- water fish, always excepting trout, 

 there is no market at all, and yet food of such a 

 sustaining quality ought surely not to be in- 

 accessible to the great mass of the population. 

 That they do not despise what they can get 

 of it is sufficiently clear to the olfactory nerves 

 of any one who passes through the poor quarters 

 of our great towns at night. Fried Fish seem 

 to pervade the air, and, on closer inspection, 

 are even more unsavoury to the eyes than they 

 have already been to the nostrils. The refuse, 

 the sweepings out of the great fish-markets, the 

 fish that are too much " off colour " to be sold 

 otherwise all these easily account for the 

 atmosphere of Leather Lane and suchlike fra- 

 grant thoroughfares. Cheap food it may be; 

 wholesome food it certainly cannot be; for 



