180 
SALMON. 
distinction; but probably it was then used as affording an 
evening’s party of amusement rather than for mere profit; and 
in this manner it was practised with less injury to ordinary 
fishing than even the usual sweep or drag-net. At least we 
are told that in remote times there were places at which Salmon 
were so abundant, that it was a matter of covenant between 
the master and servants that they should not be fed on this fish 
oftener than three times in a week. Dr. Fuller, who wrote his 
“Worthies of England,” in the reign of Charles the First, 
mentions this under the section of flerefordshire, but he appears 
to regard the report as no more than a joke. Such however 
was not the case, and in a book on the agriculture of Berwick, 
by Kobert Kerr, it is said that “formerly servants stipulated 
with their masters that they should not be compelled to make 
frequent meals of Salmon.” In the work “Notes and Queries, 
for May, 1857, there is also a quotation from Coursell’s “History 
of Gloucester,” where, speaking of the House of Lepers in that 
city, he says, “it was a standing condition of apprenticeship that 
the apprentice should not be obliged to eat Salmon more than 
thrice a week, the object being to render him less liable to the 
leprosy, which after the crusades in the middle ages was a 
formidable disease, that was supposed to be brought on or 
aggravated by the eating of fish.” But if this fact, which 
affords so strong a contrast to what is known in our day, seems 
remarkable, it will appear less so when we consider the difficulty 
which then existed of conveying to a market any large quantity 
of fish as often as it might be caught; hut more especially, 
that the Salmon which were the subject of this bargain were 
either pickled or smoked after being salted; and therefore hard, 
and scarcely to be digested. Such must have been the case 
where fear could be expressed of their producing such a disease 
as leprosy; and in this condition the Salmon could not have 
been a more agreeable food than any other salted fish, and 
scarcely equal to some of the more common kinds. 
But before we quit the subject of illegal or irregular fishing, 
I will mention another method, which has been practised chiefly, 
if not solely, in Ireland, and for the knowledge of which I am 
indebted to an individual who has practised it; and although 
it may be that I am divulging what might more properly be 
kept concealed, yet on the other hand the knowledge itself may 
