62 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK : 



The " Boke of St. Albans " calls him "a noble 

 fyssche and a deynteous," and gives particular 

 directions for catching him. Even as far back 

 as Chaucer bream were known and appreciated, 

 for that poet referred to them in his Prologue 

 to the " Canterbury Tales :" 



" Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe 

 And many a Breme and many a Luce in stewe." 



Sir William Dugdale states that in 141 9, when 

 the labour of a skilled artisan was worth less 

 than sixpence a day, a single bream was valued 

 at twenty pence. In the " Pictorial History of 

 England," mention is made of a pie containing 

 four bream, which was sent from Warwickshire 

 to a distant part of Yorkshire, and cost sixteen 

 shillings; a proof that these fish must .have 

 been highly valued to be thought worth sending 

 on such a long journey. 



Bream, though not so common as carp and 

 tench, are found in most parts of England, 

 except Cornwall and Devonshire; and in 

 Ireland they inhabit the lakes of the north. In 

 Lough Erne, that " fishiest " of lakes, bream 



