90 
UNO. 
tide, extending even to a few miles in length. It is an 
economical method of proceeding in some districts of the north 
of Ireland, as we learn from Mr. Brabazon’s account of the 
fisheries of that country, that several individuals will join 
together in providing the proper length of line, in which 
each adventurer is the proprietor of so much of the extent oi 
it as he has provided, and of which he takes the produce, to 
the exclusion of othersj but, we suppose, with some reserve of 
common interest. 
The numbers thus taken, of all sbrts of fish, are sometimes 
very great; but where a ready sale is not obtained, the greater 
portion is preserved in the usual way, and dried for exportation. 
The different parts of Italy receive a large proportion of these 
salted fish. But the consumption of salted Ling, which even 
now IS considerable at home, was formerly of very large amount, 
and It was even an ordinary dish at royal and noble tables! 
In the Eutland Papers, printed for the Camden Society, we 
are told that on the visit of the Emperor Charles the Fifth to 
London, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, salted Ling was 
among the principal matters provided for the entertainment of 
the guests; and in the directions given to the Lord Mayor to 
guide him in his preparations, he is ordered,-“Item, to assigne 
two fysshemonngers for provision of lynges to be redy watei^.” 
Although the taste appears to have declined in the reign of 
the first James, the practice seems to have maintained its ground; 
for, among the pieces of merriment of this king, he is said to 
have professed that if his royal brother of the lower regions 
should be pleased to visit him, his dinner should consist of a 
pole of Ling and mustard, with another equal favourite of his, 
a pipe of tobacco for digestion. 
According to Fuller, in his “Worthies of England,” the 
extent of the adventure was equal to the value set on the 
fish. Referring to the mischief wrought by the civil war, he 
says:— “We are sensible of the decay of so many towns’ on 
our north-east sea, Hartlepool, Whitebay, Bridlington, Scar- 
borough— and generall all from Newcastle to Harewich,— which 
formerly set out yearly, (as I am informed) two hundred ships 
and upwards, imployed in the fisheries, but chiefly for the 
taking of Ling, that noble fish.” That it formed an ordinary 
article in the provision for families in the winter appears from 
