122 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 



soaked in or anointed with oil of peter, called by some oil of 

 the rock ; and if your gentles be put two or three days before 

 into a box or horn anointed with honey, and so put upon your 

 hook as to preserve them to be living, you are as like to kill 

 this crafty fish this way as any other; but still, as you are 

 fishing, chew a little white or brown bread in your mouth, and 

 cast it into the pond about the place where your float swims. 

 Other baits there be; but these, with diligence and patient 

 watchfulness, will do it better than any that I have ever 

 practised or heard of; and yet I shall tell you that the 

 crumb of white bread and honey, made into a paste, is a good 

 bait for a carp ; and you know it is more easily made. And 

 having said thus much of a carp, my next discourse shall be 

 of the bream ; which shall not prove so tedious, and therefore 

 I desire the continuance of your attention. 



But, first, I will tell you how to make this carp, that is so 

 curious to be caught, so curious a dish of meat, as shall make 

 him worth all your labour and patience; and though it is 

 not without some trouble and charges, yet it will recompense 

 both. 



Take a carp, alive if possible, scour him, and rub him clean with 

 water and salt, but scale him not ; then open him, and put him, 

 with his blood and his liver, which you must save when you open 

 him, into a small pot or kettle ; then take sweet marjoram, 

 thyme, and parsley, of each half a handful, a sprig of rosemary, 

 and another of savory, bind them into two or three small bundles, 

 and put them to your carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty 

 pickled oysters, and three anchovies. Then pour upon your 

 carp as much claret wine as will only cover him, and season 

 your claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of 

 oranges and lemons : that done, cover your pot and set it on a 

 quick fire till it be sufficiently boiled ; then take out the carp 

 and lay it with the broth into the dish, and pour upon it a 

 quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted and beaten 

 with half-a-dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or 

 three eggs, and some of the herbs shred ; garnish your dish 

 with lemons, and so serve it up, and much good do you. 



