Lampreys were a favourite dish with our own early monarchs. Henry II. died by eating them to excess. The celebrated Pope also owed his death to a surfeit of them. Doctor Johnson remarks in his life of the poet, that he was in the habit of cooking them himself in a silver saucepan. The Corporation of Oxford still make up a periodical pye of this fish for the king, in compliance with ancient usage. But lampreys have lost their rank at corporation feasts, in consequence of the more delicious and wholesome turtle being introduced into modern cookery.
I have never noticed lampreys in the Dublin fish-market; and though they are frequently used in the South of Ireland, I do not know if they have ever been made an article of food in Dublin, or the north, where they are rarely met with.
C.
[25] Petromyzon, a πετρον, saxum, and μυζαω, sugere.
[26] In Gallia septentrionale murænis omnibus dextra in maxilla septenæ maculæ ad formam septentrionis aureo colore fulgent. PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 39.
[27] Fregerat unus ex servis crystallinum ejus; rapi eum Vedius jussit, nec vulgari quadam morte periturum, murænis objici jubebatur quas ingens piscina continebat.—SENECA de Irâ, lib. ii. cap. 40.
[28] Commisceri eas cum alterius notæ piscibus non placet, quasi rabie vexantur quod huic generi velut canino solet accidere. Sævitia persequuntur squamosos plurimosque mandendo consumunt. COLUMELLA de Re Rusticâ, lib. ix. cap. 17.
Αμφι δε μυραινης φατις ερχεται ουκ αιδηλον
Ὥς μεν γαμει τε και εξ ἅλος ερχεται αυτη