NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 71 
more to their credit, since the passage is in some parts extremely 
hard to translate. They quote it entire (pp. 356—358), with only 
two or three trifling misprints, but it deserves to be better known 
than it is, and we will here attempt an English version of it. We 
may state that it is an enconium passed upon the Isle of Ely, and 
supposed to have been delivered to William the Conqueror when 
he was laying siege to that “Camp of Refuge” ;—the last portion of 
England which held out against his victorious arms :— 
“Tn our isle men are not troubling themselves about the leaguer, but 
think they may safely be defended by their tiros; the ploughman has not 
taken his hand from the plough, nor has the hunter cast aside his arrow, 
nor does the fowler desist from beguiling birds. Aud yet something more. 
If you wish to hear what I have known and have seen, I will reveal all to 
you. The isle is within itself plentifully endowed, it is supplied with various 
kinds of herbage, and for its richer soil surpasses the rest of England. 
Most delightful for its charming fields and pastures, it is also remarkable 
for its beasts of chase, and is in no ordinary way fertile in flocks and herds. 
Its woods and vineyards are not worthy of equal praise, but it is beset by 
great meres and fens as though by a strong wall. In this isle there is an 
abundance of domestic cattle and a multitude of wild animals; Stags, Roes, 
Goats and Hares are found in its groves and by these fens. Moreover, there 
is a fair plenty of Otters, Weasels and Polecats, which in a hard winter are 
caught by traps, snares, or by any other device. But what am I to say of the 
kind of fishes, and of fowls, both those that fly and those that swim? Jn the 
eddy at the sluices of these meres are netted innumerable Eels, large Water- 
wolves—even Pickerels, Perches, Roaches, Burbots and Lampreys, which 
we call Water-snakes. It is indeed said by many men that sometimes [stcit,* 
* It seems impossible at present to say what fish is here meant, though our 
authors translate it “Shad.” The resemblance of the word to isiciwm (a pudding or 
sausage) points to some kind which was commonly made into a pudding or cooked 
with stuffing, and Du Cange has Isiz = Hsox—i.e., according to the ordinary inter- 
pretation, a Pike. Now, though to this day a Pike is generally baked with “a 
pudding in his belly,” following the laudable example of Izaak Walton, Pike can 
hardly be intended in the text, for it has been already named among the commonest 
fishes, whereas the Isicii were comparatively rare. Du Cange translates Hsox by 
Alose—the French for Shad, and our authors seem to have followed him; but we 
submit that their interpretation cannot be allowed. In the first place, the old 
name of the Shad is Lachia, whence comes Alachia, Alausa, Alose, and Allice, &e. 
(Yarrell, ‘ British Fishes,’ ed. 3, vol. i., p. 128); and, secondly, no British species of 
Shad is possessed of such qualities as would justify its being mentioned in the 
exceptional way that the Isicii are. We may add that there can be no question of a 
wrong reading, as we are assured by Mr. J. W. Clark, who has kindly consulted on 
this point the original MS. in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The 
