A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



in Hampshire. It may reasonably be inferred from Plot's silence on the subject that this 

 interesting phyllopod did not occur in Staffordshire. 



An interval of more than a hundred years brings us to the publication of another important 

 work, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, by the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, B.D., F.A.S., 

 and fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge. Although this intervening period includes the 

 birth and death of Linnaeus, and great strides in carcinology, due to such men as Pallas, 

 J. C. Fabricius, and Herbst, it cannot be said that Mr. Shaw's work betrays any acquaintance 

 with the progress made in this branch of science. Only a single passage from his two folio 

 volumes, other than quotations from Plot, has any direct bearing on our subject. In the 

 account of Mavesyn Ridware (proper), when describing the fishery within Armitage and 

 Handsacre, he explains that there the River Trent is not navigable, adding, 



and perhaps within the boundaries of this fishery there is an unusual number of deeps and 

 shallows, so necessary to the different tribes with which it is plentifully stored. The best sorts 

 are pike, perch, greyling, eel, gudgeon, and crawfish in plenty ; more rare are trout and burbot ; 

 of tench 3 or 4 in a year ; carp very rare ; and within memory a brace or two of salmon ; but 

 these were white and out of season. Of the coarse sorts, barbel and chub may be seen in large 

 shoals. 4 



The crayfish, it will be observed, is here still counted as a fish. To this day apparently the 

 spelling and pronunciation of the name varies without rule in different parts of England between 

 crayfish and crawfish. As a matter of convenience the latter should be restricted to the marine 

 Palinurus, sometimes called the spiny lobster, leaving the term crayfish to the river species. 

 Shaw's work contains a long catalogue of plants by Samuel Dickenson, LL.B., rector of 

 BIymhill, Staffordshire, ending with 'Utricularia vulgaris hooded water-milfoile. Bogs. In 

 a bog near BIymhill.' 6 Just as the names of fishes are an indirect testimony to the occurrence 

 of various Entomostraca known to be commonly parasitic upon them, so the names of various 

 water-plants in Mr. Dickenson 's list are a guarantee that a large assemblage of Cladocera and 

 Copepoda, which almost invariably accompany these plants, will not be found wanting to the 

 waters of the county. 



From the life of the celebrated entomologist and palaeographer, John Obadiah Westwood, 

 it appears that he was born in Sheffield in 1805, and at first educated there, but afterwards at 

 a school in Lichfield, whither the family had removed. 6 Professor Westwood, as is well 

 known, made his mark in carcinology as well as in other departments of learning, and in this 

 respect it is interesting to trace his connexion with this county. In the British Cyclopaedia of 

 Natural History, by Charles Partington, Westwood wrote sundry articles on Crustacea, one 

 of which contains the following passages : ' Cray fish. A crustaceous animal, belonging 

 to the order Decapods and section Macroura, and forming the genus Potamobius of Leach, 

 although Desmarets and others unite it with the lobster in the genus Astacus.' Further 

 on he says : 



They are caught by sinking a net, or spiny faggots, in the middle of which a piece of 

 putrid meat is placed. We well remember the delight with which in our schoolboy days we 

 would escape from the trammels of Bonnycastle and Virgil, and go groping, with our shirt sleeves 

 tucked up, in the holes in brooks where the crayfish were met with, and can therefore speak from 

 experience of the sharpness of the bite they can inflict with their claws. 7 



As Bonnycastle and Virgil must have been concerned with his later schooldays, it is fair to 

 conclude that the youthful Westwood was nipped by the chelipeds of Staffordshire crayfish. 

 His determination of the generic name should not be overlooked. 



A few years later The Natural History of the County of Stafford, by Robert Garner, F.L.S., 

 considerably enlarges our outlook. Under the heading ' Crustacea,' Mr. Garner supplies the 

 following information : 



The animals composing the Crustacea are very beautiful ; most of them inhabit salt water, 

 many, however, fresh, and of these some are interesting. 



Argulus foRaceus. Very common on the stickleback ; most of which little fish, in our canals, 

 we have noticed to be affected with this parasite. The Argulus is very curious, and adheres to 

 the fish by two round suckers, generally about the head, or to the side ; when detached it swims 

 beautifully. 



' Op. cit. (1798), vol. i, pp. 1 88, 189. 5 Ibid. pp. 97-115. 



6 Diet. Nat. Biog., Art. ' Westwood.' ' Op. cit. (1836), vol. ii, p. 187. 



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