Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/366

Chip. X. OP MANCHESTER, 33S Nor were the prohibitions of the Britons confined entirely to hares geefe and poultry. They extended equally to all the finny tribes that inhabited their rivers and frequented their fhores io . And thefe were now equally as the others laid open to the wafte of hunger and the ravages of luxury. Beneath the Ihelter of this prohibition the fifties had hitherto continued for ages in peace, neglected and unknown, and had multiplied into infinite numbers". They were now firft purfued into their watery element, and now firft received their particular appella- tions. Hence the clafsofour fifhes is fo remarkably diftinguiflv- ed above the other ranks of our animals by the much greater frequency of Roman-Britifli denominations among them. The Minimus or Minnow, the Gobio or Gudgeon, the Trutta or Trout, and the Perca or Pearch, the Conger or Conger, the Barbu- lus or Barbel, the Abramis or Bream,, the Carpio or Carp, the Mulius or Mullet, and the reft* were now diflodged from their antient feats h> the rufhy channels and the hollow banks of our rivers* The Thynnus or Tunny, the Solea or Sole, the Salmo or Salmon, and the Raia or Ray, the Cochlea or Cockle, the Mufculus or Mufcle, and theOftreum or Oyfter were now taken from their primaeval haunts upon oui- beaches and our ftioals. And both now made their appearance upon our tables. The Britifh oyfter was deservedly famous among the Romans, and was even as early as the reign of Vefpafian thought wor- thy to be carried into Italy ,a . The beft were then gathered from the (hore of Kent, were then denominated the Oyfters of Rutupis* and were of the fame fpecies pretty certainly and. were probably colle&cd from the fame places as the prefent low.-priced oyfters of Milton and Feverfham IJ . And the Romans firft taught us the art of fattening our oyfters in artificial beds and . of feeding, our fifties in artificial ponds ;- the feeding -pits of the .ffQr#>er -being firft invented about ninety years before Chrift and firft conftrti&ed upon the fhore of Baize, and large refervoirs being immediately made by others for the latter *V '" But the Romans itjereafed the variety of the Britifli provisions, riot only 'by the introduction of many prohibited animals to the. table*