120
JOHN RAY, THE NATURALIST.
He reached Carlisle on August 26th, and left the neighbourhood on the 30th
("Memorials of Ray," pp. 162-3) : there is no reason to suppose he was ever
more than these four days in the county ; and, among many casual notes, some
purely personal, there is not in the "Itineraries" the least hint of any family con-
nection therewith. No doubt he kept his ears open for proverbs and local words
there, as everywhere else, as he did his eyes for plants, birds, fish and minerals ;
but Cumberland occupies no more prominent place in his catalogues, of which
those dealing with proverbs and plants were first published in 1670, than does
any other county.
The tradition may have originally referred to the horticulturist John Rea
(d. 1677), author of "Flora, Ceres, and Pomona," 1665, who is confused with our
naturalist in Allibone's "Dictionary of English Literature," and elsewhere, but
I know of nothing to connect him with any counties except Staffordshire and
Warwickshire.
As to Ray's change of his name from Wray it is, I think, most obviously
explicable by the impossibility to a classical scholar, such as he was, of Latinising
a name with an initial "W."
G. S. Boulger.
Sturgeon in the Blackwater.—On May 15th last, a large Sturgeon was
captured in "Smack Hole," directly opposite my house, by Henry Deadman, With
help it was landed at the Hythe and sold to George Fenn for eleven shillings. In
the old fishery leases of the borough of Maldon "all other royalties and great
fishes, commonly called royal fishes, were reserved unto the said bailiffs," and the
lessees covenanted "to preserve and look to the said waters so that not any great
fishes, commonly called royal fishes, be taken within the said waters." On the
succeeding day Fenn sold this specimen to Mrs. Searles, fishmonger, of Tindal
Street, Chelmsford. Friday, being market day, it was on exhibition, and in the
evening was sent to Messrs Sweeting & Co., 158, Cheapside. The Sturgeon was
a female, and was measured by Mr. Float to be 7 feet 11 inches long, and 2 feet
2 inches round ; it weighed 212 lbs. I am told the one that was captured at the
Point, between Heybridge Basin and Maldon—almost the same spot as where the
present capture was effected—on May 9th, 1886, was larger. This specimen was
exhibited alive for some time in the Basin lock ; it was secured by a "clove hitch"
round the tail, and was hauled up to the surface when one penny was paid.
Although our member, Mr. R. H. Eve, had its head, I cannot get any exact
details as to measurement or weight further than that in the "Essex Weekly
News" for May 14th, 1886, we read, "it is conjectured that his weight is con-
siderably over 15 cwt." This was written while the fish was alive, and certainly
was then merely conjecture. Failing exact information about this, the present is
the heaviest Essex specimen of which I have any record ; the one mentioned in
the Rev. Edmund Hickeringill's chronicle coming next. He says, "May 4th,
1700, a Sturgeon was taken up in Colchester channel, the length of it was 8 foot
4 inches and the compass about was 3 foot 9 inches; compleat it wd. 194
pound." (''Cromwell's History of Colchester," ii. 422.).—Edward A. Fitch,
Maldon.