COMMON CARP. 351 



King Henry the Eighth in 1532, various entries are made of 

 rewards to persons for bringing " Carpes to the King."* 

 The old couplet is certainly erroneous, which says, 



" Turkies, Carps, Hops, Pickerell, and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year." 



Pike or Pickerell were the subject of legal regulations in the 

 reign of Edward the First. Carp are mentioned in the Boke 

 of St. Albans, printed in 1496; turkeys were brought to Eng- 

 land from North America about 1521. Hops were unknown 

 till 1524, previous to which wormwood and other bitter 

 plants were used to preserve beer, and the Parliament in 

 1528 petitioned against hops as a wicked weed. Beer was 

 licensed for exportation by Henry the Seventh in 1492, and 

 an excise on beer existed as early as 1284, also in the reign 

 of Edward the First. 



In this country the Carp inhabits ponds, lakes, and 

 rivers ; preferring in the latter those parts where the current 

 is not too strong, and thriving best on soft marly or muddy 

 bottoms. They are very prolific, breeding much more freely 

 in lakes and ponds than in rivers. Bloch found six hundred 

 thousand ova in the row of a female of nine pounds' weight, 

 and Schneider seven hundred thousand in a fish of ten 

 pounds 1 weight. They spawn towards the end of May 

 or the beginning of June, depending on the temperature 

 of the water and the season ; and the ova are deposited 

 upon weeds, among which the female is followed by two 

 or three males, and the fecundation of a large proportion 

 of the ova is by this provision of nature effectually secured ; 

 but they both breed and grow much more freely in some 

 waters than in others, without any apparent or accountable 

 cause. But few Carp exist even in preserved waters in 

 Scotland, and these breed but slowly, and in some instances 

 not at all. 



* Pickering's splendid edition of Walton, page 207, note. 



