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VIII.

The Haddock, Cod, Hake, Ling, Whiting, and Burbot.

This division of the heraldry appertaining to fish includes the most valuable sort as an article of commerce, and those which are universally known. Haddocks are found in shoals on the coasts of Great Britain, from the Land's End to the extreme North. Findhorn, on the Moray Frith, is particularly famed for its haddocks, which are landed at Leith, and brought to the Edinburgh market by the women of Fisher-row. A punning allusion to the name is found in the crest of the family of Haddock of Lancashire, a dexter hand holding a haddock.

Captain William Haddock, who was honoured by a gold medal presented by the Parliament for his gallantry in the memorable action with the Dutch fleet in 1653, was the grandfather of Admiral Nicholas Haddock.

A popular idea assigns the dark marks on the shoulders of the haddock to the impression left by Saint Peter with his finger and thumb when he took the tribute money out of the fish's mouth at Capernaum ;⁕ but the haddock certainly does not now exist in the seas of the country where the miracle was performed, although it ranges over a considerable space both north and south.

The Dory, called Saint Peter's fish in several countries of Europe, contends with the haddock the honour of bearing the marks of the Apostle's fingers, an impression transmitted to posterity as a perpetual memorial of the miracle; the name of Dory is hence asserted to be derived from the French word adore, worshipped. The fishermen of the Adriatic call it il Janitore, *The Gospel of Saint Matthew, chap. xvii.

the gatekeeper, Saint Peter being well known as the bearer of the keys of Paradise.

Saint Peter was the first of the followers of Christ to declare the glories of salvation, and his artless simplicity and humble character gave effect to his preaching on the minds of the earliest converts. As this saint is the especial patron of fishermen, and of fishmongers, the boat used for fishing in the Thames is called a Peter-boat; and the keys, the emblem of Saint Peter, form part of the armorial ensigns of the Fishmongers' Company.

Party per bend, azure and argent, a key and a fish counterchanged, are the arms of the mitred abbey of Petershausen on the banks of Lake Constance.

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The Pope is commonly represented in the character of Saint Peter, in the early periods of art, bearing in his hand the keys of heaven.⁕ The power of the keys assumed by the Pope, and understood as the privilege of passing judgment on departed souls, is derived from the metaphorical expression of Christ recorded in the Gospel.+

The committal of the keys to Saint Peter forms the subject of one of the Cartoons by Raffaelle at Hampton Court palace, and is worked in tapestry on the walls of the Vatican, founded by Pope Nicholas V, who bore for his personal arms, gules, two crossed keys or. The keys of Saint Peter are also borne in the arms of the Archbishopric of York, in those of the Bishopric of Peterborough, by several of the English and Irish bishoprics, and by Saint Peter's College, Cambridge.

* Sometimes the Apostle is represented with two keys in his hand, and at others with a double key, surmounted by a cross,

Saint Matthew, chap. xvi.

A haddock embowed, over an episcopal hat, is the crest of the German Baron von Eytzing.⁕

The type of the connexion between the dignity of the Church and the humble employment of Saint Peter is not entirely disregarded by the sovereign pontiff: his signet, the fisherman's ring, l'anello del piscatore, represents Saint Peter drawing his nets; and the celebrated Naviculo di Giotto, in mosaic, over the portal of Saint Peter's church at Rome, is designed from the same subject.

The story of Tobias and the fish, from the Apocrypha, forms part of the heraldry of the Armenian family of Raphael. The arms borne by Alexander Raphael, Esq. Sheriff of London in 1834, are quarterly azure and argent, a cross moline or:† in the first quarter a sun in splendour; in the second the Ark on Mount Ararat; a city at its base, inscribed Naksivan; in the third, the angel Raphael§ and Tobias on the banks of the Tigris, thereon a fish; and in the fourth quarter an anchor in bend, with the cable entwined or. These arms afford a striking example of the false taste often shown in modern heraldic composition here the very rudiments of the art, the principles which guided the older heralds, and the simplicity of existing models of early date, are all abandoned for the sake of extravagant novelty, showing more forcibly than any written satire the decline and corruption of heraldry. The departure from the true and authentic style of arms painting, equally conspicuous, is

* Sibmacher.

The cross, a brilliant addition to the splendour of the shield, was made subject to an almost indescribable number of forms, as the chief emblem of Christianity. "The word Naksivan is Armenian. Noah settled there when he left the Ark after the Deluge, and named it from nak, ship, and sivan, rest; it is consequently the oldest city in the world."—Calmet. S "The name of Raphael,

the angel who restored Tobit's sight by means of the fish, implies Divine remedy."— CALMET.

justly censured by an eminent critic in heraldry.* The characteristics of a rude but contemporary era are violently destroyed, the vestiges of early art are confused and annihilated; and who, the same author inquires, would wish to exchange for the more polished inventions of later times, devices which have been so long regarded with a kind of religious veneration?

Some herald painters were undoubtedly men of talent; Smirke, Baker, and Catton became members of the Royal Academy. Baker, celebrated for painting flowers, enveloped the arms of the nobility in gorgeous wreaths; Catton, who excelled in animals, painted the arms on the royal carriages in the early part of the reign of George the Third; and Smirke, distinguished as an historical painter, enriched the panels of the Lord Mayor's state carriage. As an independent profession, herald painting hardly existed after the year 1790, when Strickland was employed by Hatchet, the principal coachmaker in Long-acre.

COD.

The Codfish generally live in the seas of cold climates, and by their abundance are important as objects of commerce; they are taken all round the coast of Great Britain, and on the north and west of Scotland extensive fisheries are carried on, but the Dogger Bank cod are the most esteemed.

Sable, a chevron between three codfish naiant argent, are borne as arms by the family of Codd; and azure, three codfish naiant in pale argent, are the arms of the family of Beck.

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This fish has a lance-shaped body, covered with small scales;

*Heraldic Inquiries, by the Rev. James Dallaway, 1793.

as it inhabits deep water, its capture is only attempted with the line and hook. Each fisher only takes one cod at a time, and will take from three hundred and fifty to four hundred in a day; vessels of a hundred and fifty tons' burthen trading to Newfoundland bring home upwards of thirty thousand fish, but, as Lent approaches, the ship will sometimes return with only half her

cargo.

Dried cod, the stockfish of the early ages, formed a very considerable portion of the food of the nation, both during Lent and on the frequent fast-days enjoined by religion. Besides the pure spiritual end, a second object, in civil respects, was probably intended, as by the institution of Lent the prosperity of fishermen was successfully advanced.

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The trade of preserving fish appears to have been, from the very earliest period, more dignified than that of catching them the curers and salters of fish are represented on the monuments of Egypt as superior in appearance to the fishermen of that country. The fish of Egypt, as shown in the paintings on the walls of the Theban palaces,⁕ were divided lengthwise by a knife not unlike that now used for splitting the codfish at Newfoundland; but their fish were cured with fossil salt, procured from the African desert, sea-salt being deemed by the priests impure.

Home salted and cured fish were in England considered as superior to foreign, and the latter were forbidden to be imported in the reign of Elizabeth. The fairs of Sturbridge, Ely, and St. Ives, noted for the provision of fish, were then much used by the inhabitants of London. Dried fish has long been an article of British commerce, and is chiefly exported to Italy and Spain.

One of the most curious productions of the early poetical literature of Spain, collected by the industry of Sanchez,† is "The Battle of Mr. Carnal with Mrs. Lent," written by Juan Ruiz, who flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century. In this poem, which is not without humour and sprightliness, the beasts and fish are arrayed in mortal combat, ending in the total discomfiture of the former: the fish and the holy cause obtain the victory, and Mr. Carnal is condemned to fast, unless in case of illness, upon one spare meal of fish a day.‡

Previously, the remembrance of the duty of fasting was enforced by the means of rude sculptures and pictures, and these

* Caillaud's Egypt.

+ Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas, &c. Madrid, 1790. Article on Castilian Poetry in the Retrospective Review, vol. vi.

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