CHAPTER XL FISHES.
HUNGERFORD trowtes are very much celebrated, and there are also good ones at Marleborough and at Ramesbury. In the gravelly stream at Slaughtenford are excellent troutes; but, though I say it, there are none better in England than at Nawle, which is the source of the streame of Broad Chalke, a mile above it; but half a mile below Chalke, they are not so good. King Charles I. loved a trout above all fresh fish; and when he came to Wilton, as he commonly did every summer, the Earle of Pembroke was wont to send for these trowtes for his majesties eating. ___________________________________
The eeles at Marleborough are incomparable; silver eeles, truly almost as good as a trout. In ye last great frost, 168-, when the Thames was frozen over, there were as many eeles killed by frost at the poole at the hermitage at Broad Chalke as would fill a coule; and when they were found dead, they were all curled up like cables. ["Coul, a tub or vessel with two ears." Bailey's Dictionary.-J. B.] ___________________________________
Umbers are in the river Nadder, and so to Christ Church; but the late improvement of drowning the meadowes hath made them scarce. They are only in the river Humber besides. [Aubrey's friend, Sir James Long, mentions these fish as "graylings, or umbers". They are best known by the former name. Dr. Maton states that they are still to be found in the Avon, at Downton, where Walton speaks of them as being caught in his time. Mr. Hatcher says that "the umber abounds in the waters between Wilton and Salisbury". (History of Salisbury, p. 689.)-J. B.] ___________________________________
Crafish are very plenty at Salisbury; but the chiefest places for them
Hungerford and Newbury: they are also at Ramesbury, and in the Avon at
Chippenham.
"Greeke, carps, turkey-cocks, and beere,
Came into England all in a yeare."
In the North Avon are sometimes taken carpes which are extraordinary good. [Besides giving "the best way of dressing a carpe", Aubrey has annexed to his original manuscript a piece of paper, within the folds of which is inclosed a small bone. The paper bears the following inscription: "1660. The bone found in the head of a carpe. Vide Schroderi. It is a good medicine for the apoplexie or falling sickness; I forget whether." Aubrey's reference is to "Zoology; or the History of Animals, as they are useful in Physic and Chirurgery"; by John Schroderus, M.D. of Francfort Done into English by T. Bateson. London, 1659, 8vo.
When a boy I caught many of these fish in the pond at Kington St. Michael, both by angling and by baiting three or four hooks at the end of a piece of string and leaving them in the water all night. In the morning I have found two, and sometimes three, large fish captured. On one occasion "Squire White", the proprietor of the estate, discharged his gun, apparently at me, to deter me from this act of poaching and trespassing. - J. B.] ___________________________________
As for ponds, we cannot boast much of them; the biggest is that in Bradon Forest. There is a fair pond at West Lavington which was made by Sir John Danvers. At Draycot Cerne the ponds are not great, but the carpes very good, and free from muddinesse. In Wardour Parke is a stately pond; at Wilton and Longleat two noble canals and severall small ponds; and in the parke at Kington St. Michael are several ponds in traine. [The latter ponds are supplied by two springs in the immediate vicinity, forming one of the tributaries of the Avon. The stream abounds with trout, many of which I have caught at the end of the summer season, by laving out the water from the deeper holes. - J. B.] ___________________________________
Tenches are common. Loches are in the Upper Avon at Amesbury. Very good perches in the North Avon, but none in the Upper Avon. Salmons are sometimes taken in the Upper Avon, rarely, at Harnham Bridge juxta Sarum. [On the authority of this passage, Dr. Maton includes the salmon among the Wiltshire fish; but he adds, "I know no person now living who has ascertained its having ascended the Avon so far as Salisbury." Hatcher's Hist, of Salisbury, p. 689.-J. B.] ___________________________________
Good pikes, roches, and daces in both the Avons. In the river Avon at Malmesbury are lamprills (resembling lampreis) in knotts: they are but….. inches long. They use them for baytes; and they squeeze these knotts together and make little kind of cheeses of them for eating.