498 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



frequent law-suits ; but while the Eed Deer have long ceased to 

 supply a subject of dispute, the money which has been expended 

 on fighting local fishing rights, real or imaginary, even within a 

 recent period, would have provided a handsome endowment for 

 any charitable institution. 



It is not my purpose to attempt to deal exhaustively with the 

 local history of the Salmon. Such an attempt could not be in- 

 cluded within the modest limits of the present volume. It 

 would require also the special skill of a professed archaeologist. 

 My task is a simpler one. All that I can aspire to do is to show, 

 however imperfectly, that the gleams of light which we catch 

 to-day, reflected back from the faded characters of ancient 

 charters, go far to prove the importance which once attached to 

 the Salmon as an article of ordinary consumption. I am no 

 ecclesiastical lawyer; but, so far as I understand the earliest 

 evidence, it seems tolerably plain that the kings of England 

 used to grant rights of fisheries to great nobles, who in their 

 turn bequeathed a large share in their special privileges to the 

 ecclesiastics of their own neighbourhood. The royal grants 

 were sometimes of almost a nominal character. Henry III., for 

 instance, in 1226-27, granted licence to Thomas de Muleton and 

 Ada his wife, a fishery on the bank of the Eden, in Inglewood 

 Forest, for the yearly reddendo of a pair of gilt spurs at Easter. 1 

 But the majority of such grants implied large possessions, 

 out of which the bold barons could well afford to endow 

 the various religious establishments. The favours which 

 the warriors bestowed upon those who offered prayers for 

 their souls and those of their ancestors were not limited 

 to Salmon fisheries. William of Lancaster, the generous 

 benefactor of the Furness monks, gave them facilities 

 for netting sheets of fresh water : * Et insuper concessi eisdem 

 unum batellum, competens ad cariandum, quae fuerint necessaria 

 in aqua de Thurstainwater et aliud modicum batellum ad pis- 

 candum in ea, pro libitu, cum viginti retibus, ad opus dictorum 

 manchorum meorum.' The monks were allowed another ferry- 

 boat on Windermere, in which lake they likewise kept a fishing- 

 boat: 'et aliud modicum batellum ad piscandum ibidem cum 

 1 Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, vol. i. p. 175. 



