102 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
The “partrich” was, of course, the partridge, 
though it was much easier and more profitable to 
keep domestic pigeons in store than wild game- 
birds in pound. There were good reasons—other 
than those of luxury and comfort—for setting such 
store by the delicacies of fresh fish and flesh. 
The prevalent diet has been referred to, and 
there is no wonder that anything that could vary 
or palliate it was eagerly cultivated. But there 
was another reason. Those who were too poor 
to afford salt meat subsisted upon rye-bread and 
fish, and what with the indigestible food of the 
rich, and the too meagre diet of the poor, 
ague was of terrible frequency, and leprosy com- 
mon. These must be ascribed to the unwhole- 
some food and privations of the people, for both 
disappeared as esculent vegetables came to be 
cultivated, and salted provisions fell in repute. 
Macaulay reminds us of the fish-ponds in 
which carp and tench were fattened for the table ; 
the warrens of conies, and the large round dove- 
cot rising in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
abodes of the great and wealthy, of the castle, the 
convent, and the manor-house. To-day there 
is hardly an old hall or religious house in 
the country which does not show traces of 
its fish stew, or where this is wanting, the name 
is almost certain to belong to some part of 
