Did Walton Keep a Horse? 185 



the flesh of a cat cut small and bean flour, 

 and beat them together in mortar with 

 sugar or honey, etc." 



Observations of the Bream, and direc- 

 tions to catch him " occupy Chapter X. 



Of the truth of most of Walton's ob- 

 servations about carp, bream, tench, etc., 

 I have had personal experience, having for 

 many years possessed a deep pool of from 

 two to three acres well stored with these fish. 

 Walton says that "Bream breed exceed- 

 ingly in a water that pleases him ; yea, in 

 many Ponds so fast, as to over-store them, 

 and starve the other fish." This I found 

 to be the case with my bream. 



Walton lived in the centre of London, 

 and had some distance to go before he 

 could fish in the Lea near Waltham, or 

 Hoddesdon, or Ware. He could 'not go 

 by train or tram or 'bus, as the modern 

 Londoner does. He could not walk ; at 

 least, if he did, he got little time for fishing. 

 He could do it comfortably if he kept 

 a horse ; and from a word or two let 

 drop by accident in this chapter on 

 bream-fishing I conclude he did keep 

 a horse. In the midst of some direc- 

 tions for bream and carp baits and 

 fishing, which have never been improved 

 upon, among other things he tells Venator 

 to " take a peck, or a peck and a half of 



