The Ling . 
345 
The hake frequently pursued the shoals of herrings 
and drove them away from the coast; hence the proverb, 
“ What we gain in hake we lose in herring.” 
The Ling was another very useful fish. In appear¬ 
ance it was not unlike a small cod. An oil, 
says Yarrell, was extracted from the liver of 
this fish, as well as from the cod, which was used as a 
remedy for rheumatism. This oil was used also by poor 
people to supply their lamps. 
Muffett writes :•— 
“ Ling perhaps looks for great extolling, being counted the beefe of 
the sea, and standing every fish day (as a cold supporter) at my Lord 
Maiors table; yet is it nothing but a long cod; whereof the greater 
sised is called organe ling, and the other codling , because it is no 
longer than a cod, and yet hath the taste of ling: whilst it is new it 
is called greenfish, when it is salted it is called ling, perhaps of lyinge, 
because the longer it lyeth (being conveniently turned, and the peace- 
straw often shifted wherein it lyeth), the better it is, waxing in the 
end as yellow as the gold noble, at which time they are worth a noble 
a piece. They are taken only in the far Northern Seas, where the 
biggest and sweetest live; but codlings are taken in great plenty neer 
to Bedwell in Northumberlandshire.” ( Healths Improvement, p. 155.) 
“ In the Rutland Papers, printed for the Camden Society, we are 
told,” writes Mr. Couch ( British Fishes, vol. iii. p. 90)/“ That on the 
visit of the Emperor Charles Y. to London, in the reign of Henry 
VIII., salted ling was among the principal matters provided for the 
entertainment of the guests.. . . 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 ( Worthies of England ), 
the extent of the adventure was equal to the value set on the fish. 
Eeferring to the mischief wrought by the civil war, he says, 4 "We are 
sensible of the decay of so many towns on our north-east sea, Hartle¬ 
pool, Whitebay, Bridlington, Scarborough, and generall all from New¬ 
castle 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/ ” 
