Waif on and Fish-Ponds. 191 



237, fifth edition : " I have heard, that the 

 tackling hath been prized at fifty pounds in 

 the Inventory of an Angler" 



In another place a celebrated hook- 

 maker is thus referred to : 



" Charles Kirby in Harp Alley in Shoe 

 Lane, the most exact and best Hook- 

 maker this nation affords." 



OF FlSH-PONDS, AND HOW TO ORDER 

 THEM. 



This is one of the chapters added by 

 Walton, and is acknowledged by him as 

 being condensed from Doctor Lebault's 

 Maison Rustiqnc. Until fresh-water fish 

 lost much of their value as food for the 

 people of all classes that is to say, until 

 they were superseded by sea fish, much 

 superior in quality and far more abundant 

 the making and ordering of fish-ponds 

 was of great importance. The number- 

 less artificial lakes and ponds which exist > 

 in England at the present day owe their 

 origin in most cases to the great esteem 

 in which fresh-water fish were formerly 

 held, especially when our ancestors were 

 Roman Catholics. In those days they 

 understood aquaculture far better than we 

 do, and did not allow their ponds and 

 lakes to become mere mud-tanks, as is too 

 often the case now. WakolTsays : 



