144 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



passed as alluded to, there is only one wliicli 

 deserves much notice, and it is that written by 

 Mr. Vere Fane Benett, of Pyt House, wherein he 

 states, that the club-headed carp he caught in his 

 ponds were utterly unfit for human food ; ' ' nor 

 could he even get their bodies removed as a 

 gift by the labouring poor."* 



It would certainly not be advisable for any 

 labourer with a fjood appetite and not much time 

 ill his mouth for careful mastication, to be seated 

 with a pond carp, or any carjD, for dinner. 



Conceive a carp of this description under cottage 

 hands for cooking, boiled with a bit of bacon 

 and some cabbage, perhaps, sent up in greasy, 

 thin gravy. The bacon would give it a savoury 

 smell, and if he, the hungry parent of a family, 

 persisted in eating the mess, two mouthfuls swal- 

 lowed without caution would do the Calcraft's 

 office, and choke him as sure as he was born. 

 Any rash man tvith an appetite, sitting down 

 to the bony fare of a carp, ought to have a 

 surgeon on one side and a parson on the other 

 to minister to his certain agony and probable 



departure elsewhere. Like the cautious Scotch- 

 ■■■ Mr. Beiiett has since taken some splendid carp from other pools. 



