446 
THE FRESH-WATER FISHERIES OF NORFOLK. 
heretofore hath been used ; but not to take and kill Spawn or Fry 
of Fish, under the Penalty of the Statute.” 
Then follow equally wise regulations for the Oyster fishery ; and 
thirdly, some very conservative regulations with regard to supplying 
the home market, by which it is ordered that fish are not to be 
forestalled by strangers, and carried away to other places, before 
the fisherman has “ brought his fish home into Dowse Street,” on 
pain of forfeiting five shillings for each “ time of doing otherwise,” 
but they must be first offered in the said town for the town’s 
provision. 
I think it may be fairly said that the bye-laws just quoted show 
a degree of enlightenment for which we have, perhaps, hardly 
given our forefathers credit, and that these wise enactments must 
have fallen sadly into disuse in after times. At present, the Stmc- 
net is freely used in the harbour at Lynn, ostensibly for taking 
bait, but with terribly destructive effect to fry of all kinds, more 
especially to Smelts ; and the same fish is taken by draw-nets 
higher up the river, on its spawning grounds, literally by the ton. 
As the latter practice is not resorted to in the navigable waters 
over which the Norfolk and 'Suffolk Fisheries Conservators have 
power, it is beyond the reach of the law, but is not the less 
destructive. 
My primary object in unearthing these old fishery customs and 
laws from the dusty tomes in which they are hidden away w'as* 
the desire to remove, if possible, an impression that such 
matters were neglected by our ancestors, but I trust that, even 
independently of this, they may not be without interest, and 
perhaps some instruction, to the fishermen of the present day. 
