FISHES. 313 



April, and May ; and they are usually taken in nets with sal. 

 inon, and sonnetimes in baskets at the bottom of the river. It 

 has been an old custom for the city of Gloucester aimually to 

 present the king with a lamprey-pie ; and as the gift is made at 

 Christmas, it is not without great difficulty the corporation can 

 procure the proper quantity, though they give a guinea a-piece 

 for taking them.* 



How much they were valued among the ancients, or a fish 

 bearing some resemblance to them, a|)pears from all the classics 

 that have praised good living, or ridiculed gluttony. One story 

 we are told of this fish, witli which I will conclude its history. 

 A senator of Rome, whose name does not deserve being trans- 

 mitted to posterity, was famous for the delicacy of his lampreys. 

 Tigelinus Manucius, and all the celebrated epicures of Rome, 

 were loud in his praises : no man's fish had such a flavour, was 

 so nicely fed, or so exactly pickled. Augustus, hearing so much 

 of this man's entertainments, desired to be his guest ; and soon 

 found that fame had been just to his merits ; the man had in- 

 deed very fine lampreys, and of an exquisite flavour. The em- 

 peror was desirous of knowing the method by which he fed his 

 fish to so fine a relish ; and the glutton, making no secret of his 

 art, informed him, that bis way was to throw into his ponds such 

 of his slaves as had at any time displeased him. Augustus, we 

 are told, was not much pleased with his receipt, and instantly 

 ordered all his ponds to be filled up. The story would have 

 ended better if he had ordered the owner to be flung in also. 



CHAP. V. 



OF Tilt; STUKGEON, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



ThK Sturgeon, with a form as terrible, and a body as large, 

 as the shark, is yet as liarinlcss as tiie fish we have been just 

 describing ; incapable and unwilling to injure others, it flies 

 from the smallest fishes, and generally falls a victim to its own 

 timidity. 



• Henry I. eif England died nf n siiid-if from raliii),' lainprcyj. 



