GADBANS AND PLEUEONECTS. 363 



Heraldry is as careful as ichthyology to separate brill and 

 turbot : azure three bretts (or brills) naiantj are the 

 arms of the family Bretcock ; and the crest of the family 

 BritwesiU is also a brill naiant, azure. Three turbots 

 argent; finned or^ belong to an ancient family, the Tur- 

 butts of Yorkshire.* 



As the best turbot were formerly ' peregrine ' impor- 

 tations into ancient Rome (though the Mediterranean 

 doubtless furnished a good many), so the chief supply 

 brought to our markets at present come from abroad. 

 The Dutch, those indefatigable fishers for the benefit of 

 the world at large, and of themselves in particular, furnish 

 for London consumption alone, eighty thousand rhombi; 

 and to eat these as Nature always intended them to be 

 eaten (though Apicius and Lncullus never foimd out the 

 secret !) one million of Norway lobsters, for which we 

 pay froin twenty-two to twenty-five thousands sterling a 

 year, accompany them up the river. 



iEHan mentions a curious mode adopted in some 

 places in his time for taking flat-fish, founded on their 

 weU-knovra peculiarity of keeping close in the sand, like 

 hares in their forms : the plan is extremely simple ; a 

 number of fishermen at low water walk over the sand in 

 sabots ; as the water comes in, various small pleuronects 

 resort to the footprints, and are easily seen and taken. 

 The modem plan is very difierent, and adapted for taking 

 turbot of much larger dimensions : the fishermen on our 

 northern coasts go out in parties of three to a cobble, each 

 man carrying his long line, the united ends of which are 

 a league in length, and draw after them fifteen hundred 



* Besides tlie Yorkshire (now Derbyshire) family of Turbutt, 

 a Middlesex and a Scotch family, Tarbet, derive their name and 

 insignia from this fish. A demi turbot crest, tail upwards, gules, 

 is also the family crest of Lawrence, and was so borne by the 

 late Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Eoyal Academy. 



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