98 THE HERRING IN HISTORY 



of the building, equipping, victualling, repair- 

 ing and financing of an English herring buss 

 of 70 tons, a work written to support Tobias 

 Gentleman, and full of curious details, couched 

 in still more curious language, of the herring 

 buss and its equipment. The recognition of 

 Navy and fishery as of equal importance is 

 illustrated by the statement that every man 

 and boy of the crew was to have a gallon of 

 beer a day, the allowance made to the King's 

 ships. The budget, and profit and loss account 

 are added, and show a profit of 75 per cent, per 

 annum, and the adventure was seriously pro- 

 posed as a joint stock enterprise " like the East 

 India Company." 



In 1619 a licence to eat flesh in Lent 

 was necessary, as appears from an entry in 

 the registers of St. Mary Newington for 

 that year, which runs : " I, James Fludd, 

 Doctor in Divinity, and parson of the church 

 of St. Marie Newington, in Surrey, do give 

 licence unto Mrs. Ann Jones of Newington, 

 being notoriously sicke to eat flesh this time 

 of Lent, during the time of sickness onlye " 

 (Wheatley and Cunningham's " London Past 

 and Present," Vol. II., p. 505). 



In 1621 King James I. issued a Proclamation 

 against eating flesh in Lent, or on other " fish 

 days," from which the following is a quotation 

 of especial interest at the present time : — 



'* The reasons now assigned for this injunction are 

 or the maintenance of our navy and shipping, a prin- 



