Remi vey lar AG Mi POR A eye 59 
4t has been an old cuftom for the city of Glou- 
cefter, annually, to prefent his majefty with a lam- 
prey pye, covered with a large raifed cruft. As the 
gift is made at Chrifimas, it is with great difficulty 
the corporation can procure any frefh lampreys at 
that time, tho’ they give guinea a-piece for them, fa 
early in the feafon. 
They are reckoned a great delicacy, either when 
potted or ftewed, but are a furfeiting food, as one 
of our monarchs fatally experienced, Henry the 
Firft’s death being occafioned by a too plentiful 
meal of thefe fith. 
Lampreys are fometimes found fo large as tq 
weich four or five pounds. 
The mouth is round and placed rather obliquely 
below the end of the nofe: the edges are jagged, 
which enables them to adhere the more ftrongly to 
the ftones, as their cuftom is, and which they do fo 
firmly as not to be drawn off without fome diff- 
culty. 
We have heard of one weighing three pounds, 
which was taken out of the #/, adhering toa {tone 
of twelve pounds weight, fufpended at its mouth, 
from which it was forced with no {mall pains. 
‘There are in the mouth twenty rows of {mali teeth, 
difpofed in circular orders, and placed far within, 
The color is dufky, irregularly marked with dirty 
yellow, which gives the fifh a difagreeable look. | 
We believe that the antients were unacquainted 
with this fifh; fo far is certain, that which Doctor 
Arbuthnot, and other learned men, render the word 
lamprey, is a fpecies unknown in our feas, being the 
Bi 3 murena 
Not the 
Murena 
