Copyright held by
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Further details of licences are available from our
Licences page. For more
information, contact the project director,
Born digital.
On the Agas map there are nine rectangular and square pike gardens, or artificial fishponds, located in the liberty of Southwark among the bear and bullbaiting arenas. These nine pike gardens, however, give only an approximate indication of the size, shape, and location of early modern London’s three major aquaculture operations—the Winchester House Pike Garden, the King’s (or Queen’s) Pike Garden, and the Great Pike Garden—each of which dates to the Middle Ages. These fishponds relied on two separate types of holding areas: the vivarium, or breeding pond, and the servatorium, or holding pond. To catch and sort fish, workers drained the shallow ponds through diversion conduits equipped with gates and sluices. Freshwater fish cultivated in estate gardens were considered a luxury dish well into the eighteenth century, especially the pike, an aggressive predator that was admired and feared in
Most MoEML documents, or significant fragments with mol:
prefix and accessed through the web application
with their id + .xml
.
The molagas prefix points to the shape representation of a location on MoEML’s OpenLayers3-based rendering of the Agas Map.
Links to page-images in the Chadwyck-Healey
Links to page-images in the
The mdt (MoEML Document Type) prefix used on
The mdtlist (MoEML Document Type listing) prefix used in linking attributes points to a listings page constructed from a category in the central MDT taxonomy in the includes file. There are two variants, one with the plain _subcategories
, meaning all subcategories of the category.
The molgls (MoEML gloss) prefix used on
This molvariant prefix is used on
This molajax prefix is used on
The molstow prefix is used on
Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.
According to the
a long-bodied predatory freshwater fish(occurring in both Eurasia and North America and having a pointed snout with large teeth
stewor
stews, from the Old French
ready for the table, kept confined alive in a pond or tank (
Stewsor
row of stewsas a colloquial reference to Southwark’s notorious, once legal brothels.
Medieval and Renaissance fishponds relied on two separate types of holding areas: the vivarium, a breeding pond, and the servatorium, a holding pond, which needed to be close to the owner’s residence and small enough to make recovery relatively simple (Currie 22). To catch and sort the fish, workers drained the shallow ponds, dug out of ground level, through diversion conduits equipped with gates and sluices. Because they were expensive to maintain, freshwater fish such as those at the Southwark pike gardens created a meal of status regarded as far superior to salted cod. The freshwater fishpond survived the Italian renovation of the English garden, which stressed water’s role as more ornamental than utilitarian. As a result, farm-bred fish cultivated in estate gardens were considered a luxury dish well into the eighteenth century.
Although there are nine rectangular and square pike gardens drawn on the Agas map, they give only an approximate indication of the size, shape, and location of the three major Southwark aquaculture operations: the Winchester House pike gardens, the King’s (or Queen’s) Pike Garden and the Great Pike Garden (Roberts and Godfrey). For example, Roberts and Godfrey note that in
We also cannot know with precision where the three major pike gardens align with the existing ponds on the unlabeled map. While Winchester House does not appear to be close enough to any of the ponds, there is evidence that their pike garden borders the Clink (Roberts and Godfrey). And Roberts and Godfrey’s
lay a little to the west of the site of Emerson Street, while the Great Pike Garden is located near what is now White Hind Alley (Roberts and Godfrey).
Despite its omission from the Agas map, the Winchester House pond may have been in operation since the early Southwark Marsh
, must have been ideal for draining the servatoria in the Thames, which may have been too polluted for an aristocratic palate (Roberts and Godfrey).
Although he does not mention the Winchester fisheries, a very fayre houſe well repayred
with a large wharfe and landing place called the Biſhoppe of Wincheſters ſtaires
(Stow 1598, sig. Y7r). Upon the dissolution of the monasteries, Winchester House and its grounds eventually fell into disrepair until anciently called the Pond Garden alias Pikeyarde and nowe commonly called the Clinke Garden
, which suggests that the ponds were still stocked, functional, and bordering the bishop’s prison, or Clink, at the northern end (Roberts and Godfrey).
The Catholic Church also first built and operated the ponds that became the King’s (or Queen’s) Pike Garden. According to Roberts and Godfrey, the land was part of an estate for the nuns of Stratford at Bow (Roberts and Godfrey). In the
first clerk of the Kitchen,
cleanse the ponds and wharfe them and to keep them for his Majesty’s use and service better than formerly(
31/2 roods, wherein are four ponds which have been used for conservation of fish for the King’s house; and certain buildings therein(
Pond Yardthat split the two properties continued to cultivate fish until it shut down in
The last of the three ponds, the Great Pike Garden, first appears in records in a bill of sale from
In his venomous things
without harm (Walton 135). The pike, tyrant of the rivers
, and Fresh water-wolf
, lived a long life maintained at the expense of other fish, victims of its bold, greedy, devouring disposition
(Walton 134). Pike could live between forty and two hundred
years, although the old or very great Pikes have in them more of state then goodness; the smaller or middle siz’d Pikes being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best meat
(Walton 134). Pike was an expensive, royal dish, which may explain its appearance in
thy ponds, that pay thee tribute fishwill sacrifice its
pikes, now weary their own kind to eat, / as loath the second draft or cast to stay, / officiously at first themselves betray(Jonson 35-37).
First open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a little slit towards his belly; out of these, take his guts, and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small with Time, Sweet Margerom, and a little Winter-Savoury; to these put some pickled Oysters, and some Anchovis, both these last whole (for the Anchovis will melt, and the Oysters should not) to these you must add also a pound of sweet Butter, which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted (if the Pike be more then a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more then a pound, or if he be less, then less Butter will suffice:) these being thus mixt, with a blade or two of Mace, must be put into the Pikes belly, and then his belly sowed up; then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth out at his tail; and then with four, or five, or six split sticks or very thin laths, and a convenient quantitie of tape or filiting, these laths are to be tyed roundabout the Pikes body, from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit; let him be rosted very leisurely, and often basted with Claret wine, and Anchovis, and butter mixt together, and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan: when you have rosted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him (when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him) such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of, and let him fall into it with the sawce that is rosted in his belly; and by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete; then to the sawce, which was within him, and also in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four Oranges: lastly, you may either put into the Pike with the Oysters, two cloves of Garlick, and take it whole out when the Pike is cut off the spit, or to give the sawce a hogoe, let the dish (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed with it; the using or not using of this Garlick is left to your discretion. This dish of meat is too good for any but Anglers or honest men; and, I trust, you wil prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this Secret.
it is observed by(Walton 136).Gesner , that the bones, and hearts, & gals of Pikes are very medicinable for several Diseases, as to stop bloud, to abate Fevers, to cure Agues, to oppose or expel the infection of the Plague, and to be many wayes medicinable and useful for the good of mankind