202 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



weighing 51 Ibs. and the female 57lbs. These fish 

 still hold the Thames record, and are likely to do 

 so a record which I am afraid most anglers will 

 regard with incredulity. The next largest Thames 

 pike recorded is the one mentioned in Daniel's 

 Rural Sports ; this fish must have weighed when 

 first taken from the water about 41 Ibs. It was 

 caught by a Mr Bishop, of Godstow, " between Weir 

 (Kings Weir?) and Whytham Brook." "It was 

 4 feet 2 inches long, 2 feet 10 in girth, and after 

 being disgorged of a Barbel nearly six, and a Chub 

 upwards of three pounds, weighed thirty-one pounds 

 and a half." Dr Plot in the second edition of The 

 Natural History of Oxfordshire, 1705, states the 

 result of two days' netting to show the number of 

 pike and coarse fish in the Thames in former times : 



Yet in the Year 1674, it gave so ample Testimony 

 of its great Plenty, that in two Days appointed for 

 the Fishing of Mr Mayor and the Bayliffs of the City, 

 it afforded betwixt Swithin's-Wear, and Woolvercot- 

 bridge (which I guess may be about three Miles 

 Distant) 3000 Jacks, beside other Fish. 



To return to Brookes' Art of Angling. As an 

 illustration of the voracity of the Pike, this book 

 records the disappointment experienced by a cer- 

 tain Mr Lee, who on drawing a pond, which he 

 had some time previously stocked, found a solitary 

 " large lean Pike, which had devoured all the store 

 Fish, and had in his Stomach, a Water- Wag Tail and 

 a young Throstle." 



