CARP AND TENCH. 271 



am much handsomer than you are.' The other fishes com- 

 mencing to side with the contending parties, a scene of general 

 strife seemed imminent, when the wily old trout restored peace 

 to the company by saying ' Why should we all be disturbed 

 by this ridiculous quarrel ? Let the disputants go to Judge 

 Dolphin, he is a wise and just fish, and will soon decide the 

 question.' Accordingly the carp and the grayling went to the 

 dolphin, and having laid the case before him, he said : ' My 

 children, you place me in a very awkward position. I am 

 bound to do you justice, but how can I, never having seen 

 either of you before? While you have been residing in 

 fresh-waters, I have all my life been rolling about in the restless 

 waves of the ocean. Consequently I cannot give a conscien- 

 tious opinion as to which is the best fish, without I first taste 

 you.' So the dolphin incontinently snapped up the carp and 

 the grayling, and swallowing them down his gullet, said : 



No one ought himself to commend, 

 Above all others, lest he offend. 



It is curious, however, that although carp are exceedingly 

 difficult to take with the rod and line, being altogether the 

 most shy and difficult of capture of any species with which I 

 am acquainted, they are, when in stew ponds and in confine- 

 ment, one of the easiest of all to tame. They will come regu- 

 larly to their meals, according to some authors, at the ringing 

 of a bell or at the sound of their keeper's voice. 



In Vol. IX. page 396, of the Censitra Literaria there is an 

 amusing ballad, from which the quotation at the head of this 

 article is taken, commemorating the crafty character of the 

 carp. It was written, according to the late Mr. William Pin- 

 kerton, by the Chief Justice Abbott, of Denton, in Kent, the 

 seat of the late well-known literary antiquary, Sir Egerton 

 Brydges, who is celebrated in it as the Knight of the Lake. 

 Sir Egerton, though the House of Lords refused his claim, 

 always alleged himself to be, per legem terra, Baron Chandos, 

 of Sudley, and a lineal descendant of the hero of romance, 

 Sir Launcelot du Lac. The musical Lord of Pembury's board, 



