462 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 



be made of excellent use, as some poisons allayed are in 

 physick : and, as to the latter, we are to have recourse 

 to the known laws ; ignorance whereof excuseth no man ; 

 and, therefore, by their directions, so to square our ac- 

 tions, that we hurt no man, but keep close to that 

 golden rule, To do to all men, as we would ourselves be 

 done unto. 



Now concerning the Art of Angling, we may con- 

 clude, Sir, that as you have proved it to be of great 

 antiquity, so I find it favoured by the laws of this king- 

 dom ; for where provision is made by our Statutes 

 prirno JElizab. cap. 17. against taking fish by nets that 

 be not of such and such a size there set down, yet, 

 those law-makers had so much respect to anglers, as to 

 except them, and, leave them at liberty to catch as big 

 as they could, and as little as they would, catch. And 

 yet, though this Apostolical recreation be, simply in it- 

 self, lawful, yet no man can go, upon another man's 

 ground to fish, without his licence, but that he is a 

 trespasser. But if a man have licence to enter into a 

 close or ground, for such a space of time, there, though 

 lie practise angling all that time, he is not a trespasser, 

 because his fishing is no abuse of his licence : but this 

 is to be understood of running streams, and not of ponds 

 or standing pools; for in case of a pond or standing 

 pool, the owner thereof hath "a property in the fish, and 

 they are so far said to be his, that he may have trespass, 

 for the fish, against anyone that shall take them without 

 his licence, though it be upon^a common, or adjoining 

 to the king's highway, or adjoining to another man's 

 ground who gives licence. But in case of a river, 

 \vhere one or more have libera piscaria only, it is 

 otherwise ; for there the fishes are said to beferce naturd ; 

 and the taking of them with an angle is not trespass, 

 for that no man is said to have a property in them till 

 he have caught them ; and then it is a trespass for any 

 to take them from him. But this is not to be under- 

 stood of fishes confined to a man's own ground, by gates 

 "or otherwise, so that they cannot pass away but may be 

 taken out or put in at pleasure; for, in that case, the 



