THE GRAYLINCt. 179 



Sanctus called the fish a "queen of delight;." Walton 

 reminds us that Gesner says " that in his country, which 

 is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish ; " 

 that in Italy, in the month of May, he was so highly 

 valued as to be sold at a much higher rate than any fish ; 

 and that the French so prized him as to say that he was 

 fed on gold. Cotton says that he is a " winter fish/' — 



" But," he adds, " such a one as would deceive any but such as 

 know him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst season, is 

 so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is very good 

 meat at all times ; but in his perfect season, which, by the way, none 

 but an overgrown grayling will ever be, I think him so good a fish as 

 to be little inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in my life." 



Cotton is only partly right in his remarks ; for though 

 perhaps a grayling is never absolutely out of season, yet 

 without doubt he improves in flavour and in texture of 

 flesh as the autumn passes into winter, and deteriorates as 

 the winter passes into spring. The orthodox angler will 

 not fish for him till August, and the educated gourmand, 

 your gourmet, will not eat him till October. It is in this 

 month and November that the best of grayling, the Teme 

 grayling, is in his primest condition, which he calls atten- 

 tion to by the deep purple colour of his back, by the 

 black spots on his sides, by the spotless whiteness of 

 his belly fringed with gold, and by his rich purple- 

 tinted fins. However plump (and he is always plump), 

 and fat, he may seem to the eye, and however well he 

 may handle, in the summer months, these are not his 

 " season." He is really but little better then than our 

 common " coarse " fish. He comes in with the pheasant. 

 And when he does come in, I shall briefly sum up my 



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