A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



manor on the opposite side of the river, not 

 only the right to fix their weir in the bank 

 but the whole of the bank on that side and 

 the fishery in the Eden belonging to the vill. 1 

 A charter to Holmcultram mentions both sea 

 and sand fisheries in the mouth of the Wam- 

 pool. a It is scarcely open to question that 

 the sand fishings were practised by means of 

 some contrivance fixed by stakes in the sand. 

 Concessions of fishing from boats were of 

 ordinary occurrence. William son of Simon 

 de Skefteling granted a fishery in the sea at 

 the mouth of the Ellen (Alne) and one fishing 

 boat (naviculam p'uchatoriam) and a toft on the 

 beach whereon to dry the nets, with free 

 passage over his land to the fishery. 3 Alan 

 son of Waldeve ordered that as often as the 

 ship (navli) of the monks of St. Bees should 

 fish at ' Scaddebuas ' no rent or exaction should 

 be claimed from the men who manned the 

 fishing craft. 4 The owners of fishing rights 

 on the Scottish side of the Solway were not 

 always careful to tie down their grantees to 

 any special method. William deBrus, in his 

 grant of fisheries to Melrose and Holmcultram, 

 gave the monks liberty to exercise the art in 

 any way they chose. 5 



In many of the early grants of fisheries the 

 sturgeon and a fish called the great fish or le 

 graspes, which is usually but doubtfully identi- 

 fied as the whale, were reserved to the grantor. 

 It is supposed that these great fishes were the 

 right of the Crown, and that it lay outside the 

 power of the manorial owner to deal with 

 them. The same custom was common to 

 England and Scotland. In the Brus charters 

 to Melrose cited above the sturgeon only is 

 reserved, but in the charters to the English 

 abbey sturgeon and le graspeis are named as 

 the perquisites of the lord of Annandale. In 

 this connection it may be interesting to observe 

 that Thomas de Multon had licence in 1281 

 to take sturgeon 6 in the king's fishery of 

 Carlisle during his life at the yearly rent of 

 131. 4<f. This fish cannot have been very 

 plentiful in Scottish waters, for we find ' ferde- 

 kyns ' of sturgeon 7 purchased in the London 

 market in 1424 for James I. In the survey 

 of the barony of Burgh taken by royal com- 



1 Reg. of Wetkcrhd (op. cit.), 78-8 z. 

 1 Dugdale, Man. v. 604. 



3 Reg. of Holmcultram, Carl. Cath. Lib. ff. 



44-5- 



4 Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, i. ii. 



' Reg. of Holmcultram, Carl. Cath. Lib. f. 67 ; 

 Harl. MS. 391 1, ff". 102^, 104-6 ; Liber tie Melrose, 

 (Bannatyne Club), 668 ; Neilson, Annals of the Sol- 

 tvay, 52. 



Pat.. 10 Edw. 1. m. 22. 



' Cal. of Doc. Scot. (Scot. Rec. Pub.) iv. 197-8. 



mission in 1589 on the attainder of Leonard 

 Dacre the jury was of opinion ' that the lord 

 of the said manner ought to have all the royall 

 and principall fysshes, viz. : whales, sturgeons, 

 porposes, thirlepolles, sealles, turbettes and 

 such like ' caught on the English side from 

 Skinburness to back of Garth Head, being 

 about ten miles from Carlisle. It was custom- 

 ary for the lord of the manor at that time to 

 allow the tenants for a sturgeon 3*. 4^., for a 

 thirlepolle 2O</., for a turbot I2d., but the 

 other fishes were wont to be distributed among 

 the lord's officers and tenants there. In the 

 subsequent history of that barony the same 

 reservation of royal fishes was made in the 

 leases of fisheries in the Eden. 8 



That the rivers of Cumberland were famous 

 for the production of salmon we have every 

 reason to believe. It was the only article of 

 food particularly specified by king John in 

 1215, when he sent messengers to procure 

 merchandise from the citizens of Carlisle. 9 

 From the instructions of Henry III. to the 

 various sheriffs and bailiffs of the northern 

 counties on the occasion of the marriage of 

 the princess Margaret at York in 1251 the 

 same peculiarity may be noted. The pro- 

 vision of salmon was ordered only from the 

 sheriff of Cumberland and the bailiff of New- 

 castle-on-Tyne, the former having to send 

 fifty 'calivered' salmon put 'in pane.' 10 About 

 this time public opinion was taking practical 

 shape for the regulation of fisheries, and a 

 formal presentment was made at the Assizes 

 of Newcastle in 1269 about the destruction 

 of salmon and their fry in the northern 

 rivers. 11 In consequence the justices made an 

 order which afterwards received recognition 

 as possessing statutory force. The same judg- 

 ment of assize was made at Carlisle in 1278 

 on the presentment of a Cumberland jury. 



" The survey of the barony of Burgh-by-Sands 

 on the attainder of Leonard Dacre has been printed 

 among the documentary evidences used in an ex- 

 chequer action between the citizens of Carlisle and 

 the earl of Lonsdale in 1867. Many interesting 

 facts about the history of the Eden fisheries are in- 

 cluded in that collection. Mr. Geo. Neilson's note 

 on the 'guhail' in its relation to Scots law should 

 be consulted (Annals of the Solway, 54). The tongue 

 of the fish called 'le graspes' or 'craspeis' was 

 reserved to William the Conqueror according to 

 custom (Harl. Chart. 83 A, 12 ; Rymer, Tecedera,'\. 

 4). See Cal. of Doc. France (P.R.O.), 81, for the 

 reservation of the sturgeon in 1107, and also 

 Madox, History of the Exchequer, 3 49-8 1 , ed. 1711. 

 Close R. John (Rec. Com.) i. 191*. 



Ibid. 35 Hen. III. m. i. 



" Three Early Assize Rolls of Northumberland 

 (Surtees Soc.), 208-9. 



334 



