July 17.

St. Alexius, 5th Cent. St. Speratus and his Companions. St. Marcellina, A.D. 397. St. Ennodius, Bp. A.D. 521. St. Leo IV., Pope, A.D. 855. St. Turninus, 8th Cent.

Mackerel.

The mackerel season is one of great interest on the coast, where these beautiful fish are caught. The going out and coming in of the boats are really "sights." The prices of mackerel vary according to the different degrees of success. In 1807, the first Brighton boat of mackerel, on the 14th of May, sold at Billingsgate, for forty guineas per hundred, seven shillings each, the highest price ever known at that market. The next boat that came in reduced their value to thirteen guineas per hundred. In 1808, these fish were caught so plentifully at Dover, that they sold sixty for a shilling. At Brighton, in June, the same year, the shoal of mackerel was so great, that one of the boats had the meshes of her nets so completely occupied by them, that it was impossible to drag them in. The fish and nets, therefore, in the end sank together; the fisherman thereby sustaining a loss of nearly sixty pounds, exclusive of what his cargo, could he have got it into the boat, would have produced. The success of the fishery in 1821, was beyond all precedent. The value of the catch of sixteen boats from Lowestoff, on the 30th of June, amounted to 5,252l. 15s. 1¼d., being an average of 328l. 5s. 11¼d. per each boat; and it is supposed that there was no less a sum than 14,000l. altogether realized by the owners and men concerned in the fishery of the Suffolk coast.† [1]

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FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Sweet Pea. Lathyrus odoratus.
Dedicated to St. Marcellina.

Notes [all notes are Hone's unless otherwise indicated]:

1. Daniel's Rural Sports. [return]