THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 231 



CHAPTER IX. 



Observations of the CARP ; with Directions how to 

 Jlsh for him. 



PiscATOtt. 



THE Carp is the queen of rivers ; a stalely, a good, 

 and a very subtil fish ; that was not at first bred, nor 

 hath been long in England, but is now naturalized. 

 It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, 

 a gentleman that then l.ved at Plumsted in Sussex, 

 a county* that abounds more with this fish than 

 any in this nation. 



You may remember that, I told you Gesner says, 

 there are no Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless, there was 

 a time, about a hundred or a few more years ago, 

 when thi re were no Carps in England, as may seem 

 to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose Chro- 

 nicle you may find these verses : 



Hops and turkies, carps and beer, 

 Came into England all in a jear t. 



* For proof of this fact, we have the testimony of the Author of the 

 Bookc of Fishing with Hooke and 'Line mentioned in the foregoing Life of 

 Walton ; who, though the initials only of his name are given in the title, 

 appears to have been Leonard Mascall, the translator of a book of Planting 

 and Graffin^, 4/0. 1589, 1599, and the Author of a book On Catttl, 4to. 

 \596. Fuller in his W^rthies^ Sussex, 1 13 t seems to have confounded these 

 $wo persons, the latter qf whom, in the tract first above-mentioned, 

 speaks of the former by report only : besides which, they lived at the di- 

 stance of seventy years from each other, and the Author of the book Of 

 Fishing is conjectured to be a Hampshire man. 



f See, in the Life of Walton hereto prefixed, a passage extracted 

 from the book of Dame Juliana Barnes; whereby it appears that in her 

 time there were Carps, though but few, in England. It seems, therefore, 

 hat Mr. Mascall of Plumsted, did not first bring hither Carps : but, a 

 |he curious in gardening do by exotic plants, he naturalized this species 



