naturalised. It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a county *that abounds more with this fish than any in this nation. You may remember that I told you Gesner says there are no Pikes in Spain; and doubtless there was a time, about a hundred or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose Chronicle you may find these verses :— Hops and turkies, carps and beer, And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel, the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of its own proper element; and, therefore, the report of the Carp's being brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the more probable." Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in one year, which Pikes and most other fish do not; and this is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits; as also by some ducks, which will lay eggs nine of the twelve months; and yet there be other ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a VARIATION. 9 Considerable variations exist in the observations on the Carp as printed in the first and second editions of the "Complete Angler." In the former, the commencement of the chapter runs thus : Piscator. The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not, as it is said, been long in England, but said to be by one Mr Mascall, a gentleman then living at Plumsted in Sussex, brought into this nation: and for the better confirmation of this, you are to remember I told you that Gesner says there is not a pike in Spain, and that except the eel, which lives longest out of the water, there is none that will endure more hardness or live longer than a carp will out of it, and so the report of his being brought out of a foreign nation into this is the more probable. *For proof of this fact, we have the testimony of the author of the Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line, 4to, Lond. 1600, who, though the initials only of his name are given in the title, appears to have been Leonard Mascal, the translator of a book of Planting and Grafting, 4to, 1589, 1592, and the author of a book On Cattel, 4to, 1596. -H. In the Book of St Albans Carp are thus spoken of, which proves that they were known in England for more than a century before Mascal wrote: "The Carp is a deyntous fysshe: but there ben but fewe in Englonde, And therfore I wryte the lasse of hym. He is an evyll fysshe to take, for he is too strong enarmyd in the mouthe, that there maye noo weke harnays holde hym. And as touchyng his baytes I have but lytyll knowlege of it, and we were loth to wryte more than I knowe and have provyd. But well I wote that the redd worme and the menow been good batys for hym at all tymes as I have herde saye of persones credyble and also founde wryten in bokes of credence." This writer is, however, decidedly wrong as to the "batys" which "been good for hym at all tymes." The "menow" he will not touch unless compelled by hunger, nor is the "redd worme" by any means so tempting bait as some others. In the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth, in 1532, various entries are made of rewards to persons for bringing Carpes to the King, pp. 62, 74, 100, 267. male Carp without a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn, and for the most part very much, and especially all the summer season; and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in ponds than in running waters, if they breed there at all; and that those that live in rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be much the better meat. And it is observed that in some ponds Carps will not breed, especially in cold ponds; but where they will breed, they breed innumerably: Aristotle and Pliny say, six times in a year, if there be no Pikes nor Perch to devour their spawn, when it is cast upon grass or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days before it be enlivened. : The Carp, if he have water-room and good feed,* will grow to a very great bigness and length; I have heard, to be much above a yard long.† It is said by Jovius,‡ who hath writ of fishes, that in the Lake Lurian in Italy, Carps have thriven to be more than fifty pounds weight which is the more probable, for as the bear is conceived and born suddenly, and being born is but short lived; so, on the contrary, the elephant is said to be two years in his dam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and being born, grows in bigness twenty years; and it is observed too, that he lives to the age of a hundred years. And 'tis also observed, that the crocodile is very long lived; and more than that, that all that long life he thrives in bigness; and so I think some Carps do, especially in some places, though I never saw one above twentythree inches, which was a great and goodly fish; but have been assured there are of a far greater size, and in England too.§ Now, as the increase of Carps is wonderful for their number, so there is not a reason found out, I think, by any, why they The following receipt for making a Carp fat in gravelly water is taken from Lord Burleigh's Papers, Lansd. MS. No. 101, art. 9: "The carpe (which coveteth to lye in the mudde and will fat soonest in muddy or claye waters) so where the waters be gravillie would be placed in the smallest pondes and stewes and made fatt with chippins or graynes, or with the bloude of any slaughter beaste, or newe horse donnge hanged in basketts, or with a mixture of the said dunge and clay wroughte together in fashion of a longe salte stone with dyverse holes in the same, laied in the water for them to sucke on.' The widow of the late David Garrick once told me, that in her native country, Italy, she had seen the head of a Carp served up at table, big enough to fill a large dish.-H. Paulus Jovius, an Italian historian of very doubtful authority: he lived in the 16th century; and wrote a small tract De Romanis Piscibus. He died at Florence, 1552.-H. The author of the Angler's Sure Guide says, that he has taken Carp above twentysix inches long in rivers; and adds that they are often seen in England above thirty inches long. The usual length is from about twelve to fifteen or sixteen inches.-H. The largest Carp mentioned by Pennant did not exceed twenty pounds. In the park of Mr Ladbroke of Gatton, a brace were taken which weighed thirty-five pounds. In a piece of water at Stourhead, a Carp was caught in 1793, which was thirty inches long, upwards of twenty-two broad, and eighteen pounds in weight. should breed in some ponds, and not in others, of the same nature for soil and all other circumstances. And as their breeding, so are their decays also very mysterious: I have both read it, and been told by a gentleman of tried honesty, that he has known sixty or more large Carps put into several ponds near to a house, where, by reason of the stakes in the ponds, and the owner's constant being near to them, it was impossible they should be stole away from him; and that when he has, after three or four years, emptied the pond, and expected an increase from them by breeding young ones, for that they might do so he had, as the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner, he has, I say, after three or four years, found neither a young nor old Carp remaining. And the like I have known of one that had almost watched the pond, and, at a like distance of time, at the fishing of a pond, found, of seventy or eighty large Carps, not above five or six: and that he had forborne longer to fish the said pond, but that he saw, in a hot day in summer, a large Carp swim near the top of the water with a frog upon his head; and that he, upon that occasion, caused his pond to be let dry: and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, only found five or six in the said pond, and those very sick and lean, and with every one a frog sticking so fast on the head of the said Carps, that the frog would not be got off without extreme force or killing. And the gentleman that did affirm this to me, told me he saw it; and did declare his belief to be, and I also believe the same, that he thought the other Carps, that were so strangely lost, were so killed by the frogs, and then devoured, And a person of honour, now living in Worcestershire,* assured me he had seen a necklace, or collar of tadpoles, hang like a chain or necklace of beads about a Pike's neck, and to kill him : Whether it were for meat or malice, must be, to me, a question. But I am fallen into this discourse by accident; of which I might say more, but it has proved longer than I intended, and possibly may not to you be considerable: I shall therefore give you three or four more short observations of the Carp, and then fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him. The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life "Mr Fr. Ru." This passage occurs for the first time in the fifth edition. The only person mentioned in the last Herald's Visitation of Worcestershire, whose names agree with that reference, is Francis Rufford, of Sapy in that county, esquire, who died about the year 1678, aged eighty-two, leaving by Margaret, daughter of Brydges of Upleaden, in the county of Hereford-1. Francis, his son and heir, æt. 37, in 1683, who was then married and had three children; 2. Tamarlane of the city of London, who was also married and had issue; 3. Benjamin, who died unmarried in 1680; and a daughter Ann, the wife of John Yananton of Redstone, in the county of Worcester. MS. in the College of Arms, marked K. 4, f. 154. and Death, observed to be but ten years; yet others think they live longer. Gesner says, a Carp has been known to live in the Palatine above a hundred years.* * 1 But most conclude that, contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the better for age and bigness. The tongues of Carps are noted to be choice and costly meat, especially to them that buy them but Gesner says, Carps have no tongue like other fish, but a piece of fleshlike fish in their mouth like to a tongue, and should be called a palate: but it is certain it is choicely good, and that the Carp is to be reckoned amongst those leather-mouthed fish which, I told you, have their teeth in their throat; and for that reason he is very seldom lost by breaking his hold, if your hook be once stuck into his chaps. I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives but ten years: but Janus Dubravius 2 has writ a book "Of Fish and Fish-ponds," in which he says that Carps begin to spawn at the age of three years, and continue to do so till thirty: he says also, that in the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them also for generation, that then three or four male Carps will follow a female; and that then, she putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs of spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds; and then they let fall their melt upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish. and, as I told you, it is thought that the Carp does this several months in the year; ‡ and most believe, that most fish breed after VARIATIONS. 1 This passage from Gesner does not occur in the first edition and the following sentence is added in the second, and it is believed of carps as it is written of crocodiles, that they also thrive in bigness all their lives." 2 In the first edition is added, "a German as I think." * Lately, viz, in one of the daily papers for the month of August 1782, an article appeared, purporting that in the bason at Emanuel College, Cambridge, a Carp was then living that had been in the water thirty-six years; which, though it had lost one eye, knew, and would constantly approach, its feeder, who was Dr Farmer, Master of the College. At the seat of the Prince of Condé at Chantilly, are, or rather were, immense shoals of very large Carp, "silvered o'er with age," like silver fish, and perfectly tame, so that when any passengers approached their watery habitation, they used to come to the shore in such numbers as to heave each other out of the water, begging for bread, of which a quantity was always kept at hand on purpose to feed them. They would even allow themselves to be handled. Sir J. E. Smith's Tour on the Continent, vol. i. 95, ed. 1807. In the preface to the second edition, it is said the tame Carp at Chantilly were destroyed very early in the Revolution, p. xxx. † Vide antea, p. 133, &c. An anonymous writer giving instructions to Lord Burleigh for the regulations of his fish-ponds, &c., says: "Because the carpe will eate his owne spawne, youe must before Marche lay iij or iiij faggotts of osiers or willowe bowes in the ponde wher your spawners be (which would not be above ij or iij in a ponde and iij or v melters withall) and so bynd the said faggotts small in the middle, and laye the toppes verye brode and bushy at eche end, and the spawner will sleke her bellie and spawne thereon, and the |