58 WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



the sample over the fingers ; the thumb is the gauge of the 

 value of the produce, and hence has arisen the sayings of, 

 "Worth a miller's thumb;" and, "An honest miller hath 

 a golden thumb ;"* in reference to the amount of the profit 

 that is the reward of his skill. By this incessant action of 

 the miller's thumb, a peculiarity in its form is produced which 

 is said to resemble exactly the shape of the head of the fish 

 constantly found in the mill-stream, and has obtained for it the 

 name of the Miller's Thumb which occurs in the comedy 

 of " Wit at several Weapons," by Beaumont and Fletcher, 

 act v. scene i. ; and also in Merrett's " Pinax." 



Although the improved machinery of the present time has 

 diminished the necessity for the miller's skill in the mechani- 

 cal department, the thumb is still constantly resorted to as 

 the best test for the quality of flour. 



This version of the cause of the application of the term 

 Miller's Thumb to our River Bullhead, was communicated to 

 me by John Constable, Esq. R.A. ; whose father, being one 

 of those considerable millers with which the counties of Essex 

 and Suffolk abound, was early initiated in all the mys- 

 teries of that peculiar business. He also very kindly lent 

 me a view of an undershot water-mill at Gillingham, worked 

 by a branch of the stream from Stourhead, which is represent- 

 ed in the vignette. 



The larvae of water-insects, ova, and fry, are the food of the 

 Bullhead : it is voracious, and readily caught with a small 

 portion of a red worm. M. Risso says it is eaten in Italy ; 

 and Pallas tells us, that in Russia this fish is used by some 

 as a charm against fever, while others suspend it horizontally, 

 carefully balanced by a single thread — and thus poised, but 

 allowed at the same time freedom of motion, they believe this 



* Ray's "Proverbs," 



