THE CARP. 71 



as will only cover him, and season your claret well with salt, cloveg, 

 and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons ; that done, cover your 

 pot and set it on a quick fire, till it be sufficiently boiled ; then take 

 out the carp, and lay it with the broth in the dish, and pour upon it 

 a quarter of a pound of the best fresh batter, melted and beaten with 

 half a dozen spoonsful of broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some 

 of the herbs' shreds. Garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up, 

 and much good may it do you." 



This, as the reader will admit, is a dish fearfully and wonderfully 

 made, and not likely to be compounded by many of my readers. Any 

 good cookery book, however, will give a recipe which, if followed with 

 judgment, will make the carp excellent eating. The intestines of a 

 healthy fish are said to be very beneficial to persons suffering with 

 atrophy, from whatever cause, but, for my own part, I should take care 

 to see the internal parts in a raw state first, lest the parasitic 

 worms, with which even very healthy carp are infested, should be 

 numerous. It would be unpleasant to get a tapeworm on one's plate. 

 Soft-roed carp are sought after, and the roe is said to be also beneficial 

 to persons of weakly habit. Be this as it may, I have no hesitancy in 

 asserting that a well and clean fed carp of 41b. or 51b. is extremely 

 destructive to the appetite when properly dressed and brought to table. 



It being an exceedingly wary fish, the capture of a large carp may 

 be fitly ranked amongst the notdbilia of fishing. Nevertheless, carp are 

 sometimes curiously voracious when of small and medium size. Thus, 

 in the heat of a dead still summer day, I have succeeded in taking nine 

 dozen of these fish, varying from lb. to 21b. Such takes are, however, 

 I confess, exceptional, and it is curious to note that they only occur 

 in the case of small or comparatively small carp, which, presumably, 

 have not lived long enough to mature the wisdom of which they 

 constitutionally possess the germs. 



I have known in my experience some curious vagaries in the taking, 

 &c., of baits by large carp, and still stranger behaviour when hooked. Of 

 the former I may mention a sudden fit of voracity which prompted a 

 six-pounder to take no less than three potatoes and hooks belonging to 

 three different anglers, myself being included. We, of course, held the 

 customary disputation as to whom the fish belonged, but I claimed it on 

 the strength of my bait and hook being the deepest down in the gullet. 

 I have read of a similar instance somewhere, and can quite believe it to 

 be true. I have on several occasions taken small carp with the minnow 

 when fishing for perch. When a large carp is hooked it has some 

 very curious ideas as to behaviour. On several occasions I have had the 

 line severed by the sharp spine in the back fin, and once I landed a fish 



