440 JIR. T. BOUTinVELL ON SOME ANCIENT CUSTOMS WITH 
The Kuff, to which Spenser refers, w'as first described by 
Dr. Cains under the name of Aspredo in 1570, and is spoken of 
by Sir Thomas Browne as Aspredo pe.rca minor, so it has a history 
ancient enough to entitle it to mention in these antiquarian notes. 
There is a very ancient Smelt fishery still carried on in a most 
picturesque ivay by torch-light, from boats moored in the very 
centre of the city, but I know of no very early special mention 
of it. 
Below Hardley Cross we pass into the jurisdiction of the 
Yarmouth Corporation, which extends from the sea up through 
the tidal lake known as Breydon Water to Hardley Cross, on the 
Yare : on the Waveney, as high as St. Olave’s Bridge; and on 
the Bure, to AVeybridge. These rivers, and the adjacent “broads,” 
all abound with fish of various kinds, chiefly Pike, Perch, Poach, 
Bream, Tench, and Eels. But it is only necessary here to refer to 
the Eel fishery, which is an industry with a very ancient history. 
Along the courses of the rivers just named are a number of fishing 
stations for Eels, the present number of yvhich I do not accurately 
knoyv, but at the time of which I am about to speak they numbered 
tbirty-six. These stations, for some reason, are still, and have been 
time out of mind, knoyvn as “ Eel-sets,” and are thus constructed : — 
A net is stretched quite across the river, fastened by ropes to stakes 
on either bank, the bottom being kept doyvn by means of lead 
sinkers, and the upper line supported by cork floats. As the 
streams are navigable, the net has to be sunk to the bottom on the 
approach of a yvherry. This is done by means of three lines 
attached to the top line, and led through blocks fixed to stakes at 
the bottom of the water, to the eel-setter’s hut on the shore. 
By hauling on these lines the net is sunk to the bottom, 
and the craft passes over yvithout stopping or injuring the 
net, after yvhich it is raised to the surface again. In this 
long wall of net are three or four openings, to yvhich purse nets 
about eighteen feet long, stretched on hoops like boyv-nets, are 
attached, the far end being closed. These “ pods,” as they are 
called, are extended doyvn stream, and fastened to stakes in the 
river bottom, their positions being marked by floats. The eel-sets 
are yvorked at night, during the autumn months, and yvhen the fish 
are running to the sea, therefore, of course, only whilst the yvater 
is ebbing. Very often the eel-setter occupies a hut erected on an 
