Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/402

 396

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv, NOV.- n, wn.

OBSOLETE FISH (US. iv. 310). I think these fish-names arose from an attempt to imitate tKe pronunciation of a French- man, and are mostly incorrect. Thus tenes is for tense, a foreign and ignorant pronun- ciation of tench.

A few of them can be disposed of on the above supposition :

Guard-fish ; i.e., gar-fish. Glout ; error for gloat, a species of eel (' N.E.D.'). Tenes ; tench. Lying ; error for " lyng," a ling. Tusk ; an occasional spelling of torsk, a gadoid fish (' Century Diet.,' with a drawing of it). Rocket ; error for rochet, the red gurnard ('N.E.D.'). Kinson ; variant of Kingston, a name for the angel-fish or monk- fish ('N.E.D.'). Dose; error for dace (formerly pronounced "daace"). Gollin ; some kind of fish, obsolete ('N.E.D.'). Bearbet ; misprint for "bearbel," i.e., barbel. Hollebet ; halibut.

I doubt if alloc means an alose, or shad. It reminds me rather of a llec, which was a Late Latin name for a herring. I find in Wright's ' Vocabulary,' ed. Wiilcker, col. 181, 1. 3 : " Allec, vel iairus, vel taricius, vel sardina, haering." WALTER W. SKEAT.

The passage to which MB. SCHLOESSER refers would seem to have been taken from " The Art of Cookery, made Plain and Easy ; by a Lady," that is to say, the book popularly known as ' Mrs. Glasse's Cookery.' On p. 323 of the second edition (which is the first 8vo edition, and was published in the same year as the first edition, namely, 1747) there may be found lists of fish in season for Candlemas, Midsummer, Michael- mas, and Christmas quarters, and as they contain the names of sundry fishes, in addi- tion to those specially mentioned by MB. SCHLOESSER, with which I, for one, was not at all familiar, it may perhaps be of interest to give the lists in extenso, with notes upon the names of unusual occurrence : Candlemas Quarter. Fish in Season.

Lobsters, Crabs, Crawfish, River Crawfish, Guard-fish, Mackerel, Breams, Barbel, Roach, Shad or Alloc, Lamprey or Lamper-eels, Dace, Bleek, Prawnes, and Horse-Mackerel.

The Eels that are taken in Running Water, are better than Pond Eels ; of those the silver ones are most esteemed.

Midsummer Quarter.

Turbuts and Trouts, Soals, Grigs, Shafflins and Glout, Tenes, Salmon, Dolphin, Flying- Fish, Sheep-Head, Tollis, both Land and Sea, Sturgeon, Seale, Chubb, Lobsters and Crabs.

Sturgeon is a Fish commonly found in the Northern Seas ; but now and then we find them m our great Rivers, the Thames, the Severn,

and the Tyne. This Fish is of a very large Size- and will sometimes Measure eighteen Feet in length. They are much esteemed when Fresh, cut in Pieces and roasted or baked, or pickled for cold Treats. The Cavier is esteem' d a Dainty, which is the Spawn of this Fish. The latter End. of this Quarter comes Smelts.

Michaelmas Quarter.

Cod and Haddock, Coalfish, White and Pouting: Hake, Lyng, Tuske and Mullet Red and Grey, Weaver, Gurnet, Rocket, Herrings, Sprats, Scales and Flounders, Plaise, Dabs and Smeare- Dabs, Eels, Chare, Scate, Thornback and Homlyn,. Kinson, Oysters and Scollops, Salmon, Sea Pearch and Carp, Pike, Tench, and Sea Tench.

Scate Maides are black, and Thornback Maide* white. Gray Bass comes with the Mullet.

In this quarter are fine Smelts and holds till after Christmas.

There are two Sorts of Mullets, the Sea Mullet and River Mullet, both equally good. Christmas Quarter.

Dorey, Brile, Gudgeons, Gollin, Smelts, Crouch, Perch, Anchovy and Loach, Scollop and Wilks. Periwinkles, Cockles, Mussels, Geare, Bearbet and Hollebet.

The explanations requisite seem to be the following :

Candlemas Quarter.

Guard fish = garfish or hornfish, Esox belone.

Shad or alloc = the shad or allose of Ray> Clupea alosa.

Horse mackerel = the scad, Scomber trachurus.

Midsummer Quarter.

Grigs, Anguilla minima, Junius, ' No- menclator,' 1585.

Shafflins, Anguilla media, " a scaffling dicitur," idem.

Glout. This is also an eel according to* the ' N.E.D.' It is called gloat, glot, glout, or glut. Pennant says that the fish known as grig's in the Thames are known as grigs or gluts at Oxford. G. C. Davies, ' Norfolk Broads ' (1883), xxxi. 243, refers to the "hooking" 1 eel, or " gloat," the blackish medium-sized eel taken by anglers, babbers, and on night- lines.

Tenes, tollis, both land and sea. Of these I can find nothing to indicate what they were.

The lying fish of MB. SCHLOESSER is seen to be flying- fish in Mrs. Glasse's book.

The sheephead will, I think, in all pro- bability be found to be one of the Sparus group. In America there is a fish with this name, of which the ' Century Dictionary * (Times edition), vol. vii. p. 5561, col. 2, gives the following description :

" Sheepshead. 2. A Sparoid fish, Archosargus, or Diplodus frobatoccphalus (formerly known as Sargus ovis), abundant on the Atlantic coast of