AND FISHING. 113 



The bream seems formerly to have been a fa- 

 vourite fish in England. In the reign of Henry 

 the Sixth, 1454, we are told, a pye of four of 

 them, in the expenses of two men employed for 

 three days in taking them, in baking them, in 

 flour, in spices, and conveying the pye from Sut- 

 ton, in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, at 

 Mydlam, cost xvjs. \jd. 



Dugdales Antiquities of Warwickshire. 



BARBEL. 



This fish inhabits deep waters with stony bot- 

 toms, and is compared to swine, in rooting its 

 snout into the soft gravel for food, and in herding 

 together, as Mr. Salter says. The barbel is also 

 a game fish, and affords great sport to the angler, 

 not unmixed with much anxiety from their long, 

 and powerful struggling, after they are hooked ; 

 the best bait for barbel is soaked graves, using as 

 ground-bait the same, but mixed with clay. In 

 still holes, gentles, lightly enclosed in clay, also 

 lob-worms enclosed in the same are good ground- 

 baits. You can easily perceive a bite, which 

 i 



