THE FOURTH DAY continued 

 On the Carp 



CHAPTER IX 



PISCATOR 



THE Carp is the queen of rivers ; a stately, a good, 

 and a very subtil fish; that was not at first bred, 

 nor hath been long in England, but is now 

 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, 

 Came into England all in a year. 



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 

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