“A SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS”
Sir,—ln a local paragraph on the subject of lampreys in yesterday’s issue, it was stated that Henry I is credited by popular historians with dying from ” a surfeit of lampreys.” Is this not robbing King John of one of his claims to eminence? Just before his death John was campaigning against his barons, who had forced him to sign the Magna Carta. While engaged in investing London he won a victory at Lynn, and at a feast given in the evening by the burghers of that town overate himself with lampreys (some say with peaches and aie). Crossing the Wash immediately afterwards, he lost his baggage and broken with illness, just managed to reach Newark, where he died on October 19, 1216. According to the verdict of his contemporaries, “ foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the foul presence of John.”—l am. etc., Dunedin, August 8. History Student.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26229, 13 August 1946, Page 2
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154“A SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS” Otago Daily Times, Issue 26229, 13 August 1946, Page 2
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