There is an old proverb, viz. "_The Mayor of Northampton opens oisters
with his dagger_." The meaning of which is, to keep them at a
sufficient distance from his nose. For this town being eighty miles from
the sea, fish may well be presumed stale therein. "Yet I have heard (says
Dr. Fuller,) that oisters put up with care, and carried in the cool, were
weekly brought fresh and good to _Althrop_, the seat of the _Lord
Spencer_, at equal distance; and it is no wonder, for I myself have eaten,
in Warwickshire, above eighty miles from London, oisters sent from that
city, fresh and good, and they must have, been carried some miles before
they came there."