INDUSTRIES 



after every storm ; but about thirty-five years 

 ago, as the writer was informed by an old inhabi- 

 tant in 1906, a Brighton boat lay off Beachy 

 Head and watched where the Pevensey men 

 were dredging, and then the whole Brighton 

 fleet came down and worked the beds, as many 

 as seventy boats lying off Pevensey at a time, so 

 that within three years the beds had been torn 

 to pieces and destroyed. At the present time 

 oysters are dredged off Selsey, and are cultivated 

 at Bosham and Emsworth. During 1901 74 

 as many as 576,976 ' natives and sclents ' 

 were taken from Bosham, their value being 

 ^1,875 y. lod., and their loss was made good 

 by laying down 500,000 brood from Burnham, 

 and 41 5,200 oysters from the Solent. Xhe indus- 

 try, however, suffered very severely during 1902 

 through the oysters becoming polluted by sew- 

 age, so that during 1903 only 13,975 oysters, 

 worth 39 4*. lid., were taken from Bosham, 

 while at Emsworth, from which place the oysters 

 had obtained an evil notoriety as the cause of 

 several deaths, no trade at all was done. 75 The 

 causes of pollution having since been removed 

 and public confidence restored, the oysters and 

 the industry have alike become more healthy. 



A fish which must not be ignored, and which 

 occupies a place intermediate between the sea 

 and freshwater fishes, is the Arundel mullet of 

 well-earned celebrity. The mullet has always 

 been recognized as a dainty, and when King 

 Edward I was at Chichester in 1299 we find 

 that 301. was paid ' to one going by the sea coast 

 to make provision of grey mullet. 1 ' 6 No doubt 

 this mullet was obtained from the neighbour- 

 hood of the mouth of the Arun, in which river, 

 as high as Arundel and no higher the best 

 grey mullet in the kingdom are to be caught. 



:< Part. Return, Fisheries, 1901-2, p. 14. 



" Ibid. 1903-4. 



" Suts. Arch. Coll. ii, 151. 



The Arundel Castle accounts 77 for the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries contain many 

 entries relating to these fish; in 1653 mullet 

 were sent on several occasions to London for the 

 countess, and to Albury for Sir Richard Onslow ; 

 four persons were paid 5 i8s. $d. for catching 

 mullet for the earl in 1654, while on the other 

 hand the earl took proceedings in 1656 against 

 certain men for poaching mullet, bream, carp, 

 pike, dace, and eels, and in 1707 Richard Beach 

 of Littlehampton gave a bond of jiOO not to 

 use any net or other engine for taking mullet 

 between Arundel bridge and Littlehampton, and 

 not to do anything to frighten or disturb the 

 fish. 



Freshwater fish were formerly of far greater 

 importance, both commercially and for local con- 

 sumption, than at the present time. The Domes- 

 day Survey mentions fisheries as appurtenant 

 to many Sussex manors, and records large yearly 

 renders of eels from them, and from the mill- 

 ponds, while disputes over the right of fishing in 

 streams and ponds were of frequent occurrence 

 in the mediaeval period. Coming down to recent 

 times Young, writing about 1798, says : ' 8 



A Mr. Fenn of London has long rented and is 

 the sole monopolizer of all the fish that are sold in 

 Sussex. Carp is the chief stock ; but tench and 

 perch, eels and pike are raised. . . . Mr. Milward 

 has drawn carp from his marlpits 25 Ib. a brace and 

 with two inches of fat on them, but these he feeds 

 with pease. ... At 12 inches carp are worth 50;. 

 and 3 the hundred ; at 15 inches 6, at 18 inches 

 8 and 9. 



Now, however, freshwater fish are neglected 

 commercially, and their culture and capture have 

 passed from the sphere of industry to that of 

 sport. 



77 MS. in library of Suss. Arch. Soc. 



78 Sun. Agriculture, 393-401. 



271 



