FISHES 499 



viginti retibus, sine ulla contradictione mei vel hseredum 

 meorum.' 1 But it was to their rights of fishing for Salmon 

 that the monks clung most tenaciously. Pleased and thankful 

 they were, no doubt, to dip the light paddles of their well- 

 seasoned bark in the rippling waves of Windermere, the 

 brethren chanting their vesper hymn as they drew to land the 

 dripping nets, detaining in their fatal meshes numbers of dark- 

 banded Perch or delicate crimson-bellied Charr. These last 

 might either be preserved alive in tanks or converted at once 

 into a savoury mess, prepared to grace the festal memory of 

 some hermit or legendary saint. Fish stews, let us remember, 

 were the rule in those days. Venison could not be obtained at 

 all seasons. Moreover, the original stock of the wiry little 

 Herdwick sheep, which now people our bare hills with bleating 

 thousands, the ewes dropping their dark-limbed lambkins during 

 the first days of May, had not as yet landed on our western sea- 

 board, saved from the wreck of the gallant Spanish galleon that 

 drove inshore before a hurricane, breaking up on one of those 

 sunken reefs of rock that bind our coast, concealed from the careful 

 pilot by the wash of the treacherous tide. The bishop at Rose 

 replenished the episcopal lough with Jack and other coarse fish, 

 fit food for the humbler retainers of his household. At Holm- 

 coltram the Abbot maintained the course of discipline prescribed 

 by his order with sturdy conscience, entertaining Lenten guests 

 with a variety of fishes, selected from those which lay huddling 

 together at the bottom of his well-appointed fish stews. But 

 what mattered stews full of Carp and Pike, when a Grilse, fresh 

 run from the sea, could be had for the trouble of drawing a 

 favourite pool 1 Hugh de Morville gave to God and the Blessed 

 Mary of Holmcoltram and the monks there serving God, 'unurn 

 rete integrum ad Soleburgh et in omnibus aliis locis super 

 Edene communiter, cum vineto de Burgh, et unum bothum et 

 locum aptum ad rete suum exsiccandum, cum omnibus aliis aysia- 

 mentis ad illud rete pertinentibus.' 2 Disputes about fisheries 

 are legionary, and even the religious bodies quarrelled with one 

 another about their respective rights. For example, in the 

 year 1234, a dispute arose between the Prior of Carlisle and the 

 1 Dugdale, MonasL, vol. v. p. 247. 2 lb. p. 607. 



