62 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, [part i. 



I know * that the want of Otter-killers, and the not keeping the 

 fence-months for the preservation of fish, will, in time, prove the 

 destruction of all rivers. And those very few that are left, that 

 make conscience of the laws of the nation, and of keeping days 

 of abstinence, will be forced to eat flesh, or suffer more incon- 

 veniences than are yet foreseen. 



Venator. Why, Sir, what be those that you call the fence- 

 months ? 



PiSCATOR. Sir, they be principally three, namely, March, 

 April, and May : for these be the usual months that Salmon come 

 out of the sea to spawn in most fresh rivers. And their fry would, 

 about a certain time, return back to the salt water, if they were 

 not hindered by weirs and unlawful gins, which the greedy -fisher- 

 men set, and so destroy them by thousands ; as they would, being 

 so taught by nature, change the fresh for salt water. He that 

 shall view the wise Statutes made in the 13th of Edward the 

 First,* and the like in Richard the Second,t may see several 



Variation.] * I may tell you. — i.st and ad edit, 



Th' amphibious monster ranges all the shores. 

 Darts thro' the waves, and ev'ry haunt explores ; 

 Or let the gin his roving steps betray. 

 And save from hostile jaws the scaly prey." 



* The statute of the isth Edw. I. cap. 47, is as follows : " It is provided, That the 

 waters of Humber, Ouse, Trent, Dove, Arre, Derewent, Wherfe, Nid, Yare, Swale, 

 Tese, and all other waters (wherein salmons be taken within the kingdom), shall be in. 

 defence for taking salmons from the Nativity of our Lady unto St Martin's Day : and 

 that likewise young salmon shall not be taken nor destroyed by nets, nor by other 

 engine, at millpools, from the midst of April unto the Nativity of St John the Baptist. 

 And in places where such rivers be, there shall be assigned overseers of this statute, 

 ■which being sworn, shall oftentimes see and enquire of the offenders ; and for the first 

 trespass, they shall be punished by burning of their nets and engines ; and for the 

 second time, they shall have imprisonment for a quarter of a year ; and for the third 

 trespass, they shall be imprisoned a whole year ; and as their trespass increaseth, so 

 shall the punishment." 



t The statute referred to was enacted in the 13th year of the reign of Richard the 

 Second, cap. ig, of which the following is a copy : " Item, Whereas it is contained in 

 the Statute of Westminster the Second, that young salmons shall not be taken nor 

 destroyed by nets, nor by other engines, at milldams, from the midst of April till the 

 Nativity of St John the Baptist, upon a certain pain limited in the same statute ; " 'it is 

 accorded and assented. That the sqid statute be firmly holden and kept, joyning to the 

 same, that young salmons shall not be taken, during the said time, at milldams, nor in 

 other places upon the same pain. And that no fisher, or garth-man, nor any other, of 

 what estate or condition that he be, shall from henceforth put in the waters of Thamise, 

 Humber, Ouse, Trent, uor any other waters of the realm by the said time, nor in other 

 time of the year, any nets called stalkers, nor other nets nor engines whatsoever they be, 

 by which the fry or the breed of the salmons, lampreys, or any other fish, may in any 

 wise be taken or destroyed, upon the pain aforesaid.* "And also where it is contained 

 in the same statute, that all the waters in the which salmons be taken within the realm, 

 shall be put in defence as to the taking of salmons, from the Day of the Nativity of our 

 Lady, until St Martin's Day ; " 'it is ordained and assented, that the waters of Low, 

 Wyre, Mersee, Rybbyl, and all other waters in the county of Lancaster, be put in 

 defence, as to the taking of salmons, from Michaelmas Day to the Purification of our 

 Lady, and in no other time of the year, because that salmons be not seasonable in the 



