THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART T. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Of FISH-POND?, and how to order them. 



DOCTOR Lebault, the learned Frenchman, in his 

 large discourse of Mai son Rustiquc*** gives Hi is direc- 

 tion for making of fish-ponds. I shall refer you to 

 Iiim, to read it at large : but, I think, I shall contract 

 it and yet make it as useful. 



He adviseth, That, when you have drained the 

 ground, and made the earth firm where the head of the 

 pond must be ; that you must, then, in that place, 

 drive in two or three rows of oak or elm piles, which 

 should be scorched in the fire, or half-burnt, before 

 they be driven into the earth ; for being thus used, it 

 preserves them much longer from rotting : And having 

 done so, lay faggots or bavins of smaller wood betwixt 

 them: and, then, earth betwixt and above them : And, 

 then, having first very well rammed them and the earth, 

 use another pile in like manner as the first were : and 

 note, that the second pile is to be, of or about the 

 height that you intend to make your sluice or flood- 



fate, or the vent that you intend shall convey the over* 

 owings of your pond in any flood that shall endanger 

 the breaking of the pond-dam. 



Then he advises, That you plant willows or owlers 

 about it, or both. And, then, cast in bavins in some 

 places not far from the side, and in the most sandy 

 placesfor fish both to spawn upon ; and to defend 

 tehm and the young fry from the many fish, and' also, 

 from vermin that lie at watch to destroy them, especially 



* This book, translated into English hy Richard Surflet, and corrected 

 by Gervase Markham, is extant, under the title of the Count rey Farm. 

 London, 1616, folio. 



