152 FISHING GOSSIP. 



CAKP-GOSSIR 



IN the Wlwle Art of Fishing, published in 1719, we 

 are informed that " the carp is a stately and very 

 subtle fish, called the fresh-water fox, and queen of 

 rivers." And the renowned Handle Holme, in his 

 very scarce and extraordinary work the Accademie of 

 Armory, tells us that in heraldry " a carp is the 

 emblem of hospitality, and denotes food and nourish- 

 ment from the bearer to those in need." This last- 

 mentioned book is probably one of the most curious 

 productions in our language, being a kind of panto- 

 logia, or encyclopaedia written and arranged in a 

 heraldic form. Nothing is too high, nothing is too 

 low, for our author's comprehensive mind. Every 

 real and imaginary being, corporeal or spiritual, every 

 science and pseudo-science, every gradation of rank, 

 from the emperor with his ensigns of authority and 

 the ceremonies of his coronation, down to the butcher 

 and barber with the implements of their respective 

 trades, find a place in it. In this compendious 

 omnium gatherum we may find architecture and the 

 seven cardinal virtues maintaining their position 

 beside palmistry and the seven deadly sins ; cock- 



