336 The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare’s Time. 
Yarrell gives an explanation of the name:— 
“The hand of the miller is constantly under the meal-spout, to 
ascertain by actual contact the character and qualities of the meal 
produced. By a peculiar movement the thumb spreads the sample 
over the fingers, and is, therefore, employed with tact, the gauge of the 
value of the produce. Hence the proverb,' An honest miller hath a 
golden thumb,’ in reference to the amount of profit that is the reward 
■of his skill. By incessant use in this way, the miller’s thumb acquires 
a form which is said to resemble exactly the shape of the head of the 
little fish so constantly found in the mill-stream.” (. British Fishes , 
vol. i. p. 57.) 
Thomas JSTashe, in his Lenten Stuffe, alludes to the 
voracity of this small creature, which is out of all 
proportion to its size:— 
“ In my exile, and irkesome discontented abandonment, the silliest 
miller’s thombe, or contemptible stickle-back of my enemies, is as busie 
nibbling about my fame, as if I were a dead man throwne amongst 
them to feede upon.” ( Hctrleian Miscellany , vol. vi. p. 146.) 
The Mackerel used to be included in the list of 
migratory fishes, but, according to Yarrell, 
Md^ckorGL • " • ° 
this was a mistake. It only retires a short 
distance from the shore, returning to the shallow waters 
to spawn. 
Warwickshire now 7 boasts that, although an inland 
county, it is the best supplied with fish. But this was 
not the case in the Middle Ages, and there may be some 
connexion between the condition of the fish which reached 
the market town of Stratford-on-Avon, and Shakspeare’s 
frequent reference to its unsavoury state. He has but one 
allusion to mackerel, not of the freshest, and in the case 
of this fish the tediousness of transport must have been 
peculiarly unfortunate. 
The Tunny, a fish of considerable size, was well known 
to the ancients, and has in all times been 
highly prized. It was eaten both fresh and 
