When fishy Stalls with double Store are laid; The golden belly'd Carp, the broad-finn'd Maid, Red speckled Trouts, the Salmon's silver Soul, The jointed Lobster, and unscaly Soale, And luscious 'Scallops, to allure the Tastes Of rigid Zealots to delicious Fasts; _Wednesdays_ and _Fridays_ you'll observe from hence, Days, when our Sires were doom'd to Abstinence. Care was taken for the preservation of salmon, as the following notice shows: 'Whereas by divers ancient statutes made to prevent the Destruction of the Fry and Brood of Salmons, it is ordained, That none shall be taken in any of the Rivers or Waters, wherein Salmon is taken, between the 8th of September and the 11th of November; and that none shall be taken in the Waters in the County of Lancaster between the 29th of September and the 2d of February; and by a late Statute, That no Salmons shall be taken in the County of Southampton and the Southern Parts of Wiltshire between the 30th of June and the 11th of November, nor be exposed to Sale under the Penalties thereby provided: These are to give Notice that all Salmons taken out of their Seasons, and exposed to Sale in London, will be destroyed, as many lately have been, by the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of the said City, as not fit to be sold for Victuals, being taken out of their Seasons, contrary to the Statutes afore mentioned: And that every Person bringing before the Lord Mayor such unseasonable Salmons, shall have a Reward for the same, to be paid by the Company of Fishmongers, London, as the Lord Mayor for the time being shall think fit.'[261] [Footnote 261: _London Gazette_, Oct. 31/Nov. 4, 1706.] Our River Thames, then, was really the _habitat_ of good fish, for we read: 'A Sturgeon was taken the last Week in the River near Stepney, which the Lord Mayor sent as a Present to Her Majesty.'[262] [Footnote 262: _The English Post_, June 5/8, 1702.] It causes a sigh of regret to read of the great plenty, and wonderful cheapness, of real native oysters. They were then, as now, only considered fit to eat during the months with R in them; and Gay, speaking of autumn, says, as a sign of its arrival, 'And Damsels first renew their Oyster Cries'; and in another part of 'Trivia' he gives the following sound advice:-- If where _Fleet Ditch_ with muddy Current flows, You chance to roam; where Oyster Tubs in Rows Are rang'd beside the Posts; there stay thy Haste, And with the sav'ry Fish indulge thy Taste: The Damsel's Knife the gaping Shell commands, While the salt Liquor streams between her Hands.