9th January 1825

Newspaper Miracles Wonders Curiositys &c &c under these heads I shall insert anything I can find worth reading & laughing at—2 extraordinary large eels were last week taken upon the Saltings at Steeple in Dengre hundred Essex—these monsters of their species (& there is every reason to believe them freshwater silver eel)—one was seven feet in length twenty-one inches in surcumference & weighd fifty-seven pounds the other was six feet long larger round then the former & weighd sixty-two pound—twenty years back one was taken nearly six feet long close to Portman marsh wall—in Essex a quarter of a mile from Maldon bridge—a part of one of the eels was eaten by our correspondent who speaks highly of its flavour—Essex herald A parish clerk 115 years old is now able to read without spectacles & dig graves &c &c — Stamford Mercury