mers. Their names are single and simple. Perch, sole, cod, eel,
carp, char, skate, tench, trout, brill, bream, pike, and many others,
plain monosyllables: salmon, dory, turbot, gudgeon, lobster, whitebait,
grayling, haddock, mullet, herring, oyster, sturgeon, flounder, turtle,
plain dissyllables: only two trisyllables worth naming, anchovy and
mackerel; unless any one should be disposed to stand up for halibut,
which, for my part, I have excommunicated.

_Mr. Gryll._ I agree with you on that point; but I think you have named
one or two that might as well keep it company.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I do not think I have named a single
unpresentable fish.

_Mr. Gryll._ Bream, doctor: there is not much to be said for bream.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ On the contrary, sir, I think there is much
to be said for him. In the first place, there is the authority of
the monastic brotherhoods, who are universally admitted to have been
connoisseurs in fish, and in the mode of preparing it; and you will
find bream pie set down as a prominent item of luxurious living in the
indictments prepared against them at the dissolution of the monasteries.
The work of destruction was rather too rapid, and I fear the receipt
is lost. But he can still be served up as an excellent stew, provided
always that he is full-grown, and has swum all his life in clear running
water. I call everything fish that seas, lakes, and rivers furnish to
cookery; though, scientifically, a turtle is a reptile, and a lobster an
insect. Fish, Miss Gryll--I could discourse to you on fish by the hour:
but for the present I will forbear: as Lord Curryfin is coming down to
Thornback Bay, to lecture the fishermen on fish and fisheries, and to
astonish them all with the science of their art You will, no doubt, be
curious to hear him. There will be some reserved seats.

_Miss Gryll._ I shall be very curious to hear him, indeed. I have never
heard a lecturing lord. The fancy of lords and gentlemen to lecture
everybody on everything, everywhere, seems to me something very comical;
but perhaps it is something very serious, gracious in the lecturer,
and instructive to the audience. I shall be glad to be cured of my
unbecoming propensity to laugh whenever I hear of a lecturing lord.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I hope, Miss Gryll, you will not laugh at
Lord Curryfin: for you may be assured nothing will be farther from his
lordship's intention than to say anything in the slightest degr