394 ON THE PLACE OF FISH IN 



received certain payments from fishermen licensed 

 to angle or net parts of the piscary. On an average 

 these licences amount to los. \\d. annually. Thames 

 salmon sold at very high prices ; their value, when 

 expressed in present money, being on an average 

 2 i$s. lod. No salmon are now taken in the Thames, 

 sewage having destroyed them. 



Christchurch fish was about the same value. 



But none equal the value of Severn fresh fish, 

 sold at Gloucester at 6s. $d. each. This is enormous 

 despite the traditional price of Severn fish. 



Eltham they were sold for is. 6d. 



In this record salt fish is expressly named ; thus 

 fourteen are named as being purchased at Gloucester 

 at 2s. 9%d. ; six at Conway in 1392 at 2s. 6d. ; three at 

 Hardlaugh that is Harlech at I id. each. In 1 3 1 6 a 

 sturgeon was caught at Mortlake which the bailiff of 

 Westshene purchased for i for the King's use. By 

 a statute of the same reign (16 Ed. II. cap. i) all 

 sturgeon, wherever caught, are declared vested in the 

 Crown by virtue of its dignity or prerogative, and 

 are to be delivered without purchase. 



Lampreys. Lampreys were considered the choicest of fish. 

 They were expensive luxuries in the year 1284, 

 selling in Clare at *js. a dozen, and in Bridgnorth, in 

 1392, 6s. 8d. was the price for a single dish. 



Eels. The dearest eels were those caught at Wythornese- 



mere in Yorkshire, which sold at 3^. 8d. the stick of 

 twenty-one. All these entries are before the plague. 

 After those are two entries of salt eels, in 1392 at 6d, 

 in 1398 at 2s. y the stick. Conger eels were bought at 

 Winchester in 1259, at Branndon in 1327. The latter 

 gives an entry of porpoise purchased at 8d. If these 



