I 4 o THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



with it : The using or not using of this garlic is left to your 

 discretion.* M. B." 



This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest 

 men ; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted 

 you with this secret. 



Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no Pikes 

 in Spain, and that the largest are in the Lake Thrasymene in Italy; 

 and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England ; and 

 that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest.f Just 

 so doth Sussex boast of four sorts offish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, 

 a Chichester Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout. 



But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but 

 proceed to give you some observations of the Carp, and how to 

 angle for him ; and to dress him, but not till he is caught. 



CHAP. IX. PlSCATOR. THE Carp is the queen of rivers ; a 



On the Carp, stately, a good, and a very subtile fish ; that was 

 not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now 



* It may perhaps be deemed amusing to compare Walton's method of cooking the 

 Pike, with that practised in the Royal kitchens in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 

 as preserved in the Sloane MS. No. 1201. " For to make a pyke in galentyne. Take a 

 pyke and quarter hym, and sethe hym in scharpe sawse, and than pille awey the skynne 

 and ley hym in a fayre vessell of tre or of erthe, and than take whyte wyne and whyte 

 vynegre, and take fayre breed and put thereto, and make it hoote over the fyre, and 

 than drawe it thorough a streynor. Than caste thereto powdre of pepper and of galyn- 

 gale of cloves, salt it fayre and gyffe it a lytell hete and stere it wele togedre and put it 

 to thy fyssche, and whan thou wilte have of it. take uppe apece or two with the sawse, 

 and cast powdre of gynger uppon it and serve it forth. 



" A pyke boyled. Take and make a sawse of fayre water and salt and a lyttell ale and 

 a percyle and then take a pyke and nape hym and drawe hym in the bely, and slytte 

 hym thorow the bely, backe, and hede, and tayle with a knyfe in two peces, and smyte 

 the sydes in quarteres, and wasshe hem clene, and yiffe thow wilt have hym rownde 

 scoche hym by the hede in the backe, and drawe hym there, and scoche hym in two 

 places or iij in the backe, but not thorough. And slytte the pouche and kepe the frye 

 or the lyvre, and cutte awey the galle, and whan the sawse begynneth to boyle, skym it, 

 and wasche the pyke, and cast hym thereinne, and cast the frye and the pouche thereto, 

 and lete it boyle togedres. And then make the sawse thus: mynse small the pouche 

 and the frye in a lytell gravey of the pyke, and cast thereto powdre of gynger, cavell, 

 verjuice, and mustard, and salt." 



t It has been a common notion that the Pike was not extant in England till the reign 

 of Henry the Eighth ; but it occurs very frequently in the " Forme of Cury," compiled 

 about 1390. The old name was Luce, or Lucy. An ancient MS. formerly in the pos- 

 session of John Topham, Esq., written about 1250, mentions " Lupos aqriaticos sive 

 Luceos" amongst the fish which the fishmongers were to have in their shops. Three 

 Lucies were the arms of the Lucy family, as early as the reign of Henry the Third ; and 

 in a contemporary Roll of arms they are thus described, "Geffrey de Lucy, de goules 

 trois lucies d'or." In the 6th Rich. II. AO. 1382, the mayor and citizens of London 

 prayed that no fishmonger, nor any other person free of the City, might thenceforward 

 buy any kind of fish to sell again in the City, excepting pikes and fresh eels, " forspris 

 pikes, anguilles fresshes," &c. Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 142. b In the Roll of the same 

 Parliament, the words " horspris anguilles fresshes, beketes ou pikes" occur. Ibid. 



Compare Pennant's Zoology, vol. iii. p. 280, 410. Lelandi Collectanea, vol. vi. i, 5, 6. 



That the Pike was here in Edward the Third's time is evident from Chaucer's Prologue 

 to the Canterbury Tales, edit. Tyrwh. p. 351, 352 : 



" Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe, 

 And many a Breme and many a Luce in stewe." 



