Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

146 PLINY—MARTIAL—WAS THE ROD JOINTED?Concha Lucrini delicatior stagni, rendered by Paley " moredelicate " (in complexion) " than the mother-of-pearl in theshell of the Lucrine oyster." ^Others hold that concha is meant for the oyster itself.One author, basing himself on the varying praises of theparticular beauties of the child, rhapsodises thus " : Oysters ^so tender, so juicy, so succulent, so delicious, that the poet"could hnd no fitter comparison for a charming young girl !But in the words of Jeffrey of the Edinburgh Review, " This willnever do." To twist the verse into a comparison of pleasurederived from the sense of taste rather than of beauty from thesense of sight passes the inadmissible, and unless Martial couldeat, or in Charles Lamb's word on a gift of game, " incorporate "the pretty child, reaches the ludicrous.Martial shows up as a sportsman. Proud of a good day,he knows—and tells us—what itis to be " blank " (" ecce reditsporta piscator inani," Ep., X. 37, 17). That he is no " RiverHog " and quite eligible for some select club on the Test orItchen appears from his throwing back into his native river anymullet which looked less than three pounds. 3The interest attaching to his Epigrams lies not only in theevidence they afford of his and his friends' love for things1 Ep.. V. 37. 3.^ Pliny (XXXII., 21) and other writers show that epicures, then as now,were divided as to which was the best oyster. Mucianus awards the palm overall the other oysters to those from Cyzicus : " Cyzicena majora Lucrinis,dulciora Britannicis, suaviora Medulis, acriora Lepticis, pleniora Lucensibus,sicciora Coryphantenis, teneriora Istricis, candidiora Circeiensibus," butPliny in " Sed his neque dulciora neque teneriora esse ulla, compertum est,"evidently plumps for those of Circeii in Latium. The British oysters camechiefly from Rutupise (in Kent), now Richborough, not far from our Whitstableof oyster fame. The castle and camps of Rutupise and Regulbum werebuilt by the Romans to command and secure the entrance to the Thames bythe arm of the sea, which then separated Kent from the Isle of Thanet. Theseoysters find mention in Juvenal (IV. 141), " Rutupinoque edita fundo Ostreacallebat primo deprendere morsu." Dalecampius says of them, " Praestantissimanutriunt." Our modern rule that no oyster should be eaten in a monthwhose name lacks an r probably descends from the Mediajval"Mcnsibus erratis vos ostrea manducatis."^ Ep., X. 37, 7 and 8," Ad sua captivum quam saxa remittere mullum,Visus erit libris qui minor esse tribus."This is an attempt to show how large and plentiful the mullets were in Spain,and is just hospitable swagger, for Pliny, N. H., IX. 30, states that a mulletrarely exceeded two pounds.