Note 94 — NOTES ON CERTAIN FISHES AND MARINE ANIMALS FOUND IN NORFOLK.
Reading edition
Merrett calls the Ruff Cernua fluviatilis, and mentions its abundance in the River Yare at Norwich, which he (no doubt inadvertently) assigns to the County of "Essex"; from this locality Caius obtained the specimen, a drawing of which he sent to Gesner under the name of Aspredo. Camden assigns this fish also to Norwich, and Spencer, in his "Marriage of the Thames and Medway," writes of the Ruff:—
"Next cometh Yar, soft washing Norwich walls, And with him bringeth to their festival Fish whose like none else can show, The which men Ruffins call."
This county seems to have been assigned an exclusive proprietorship in the Ruff, to which, as Browne rightly points out, it had no just claim.