300 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 



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 any one that shall 

 take them without his licence, though it be upon a common, or adjoin- 

 ing to the King's highway, or adjoining to another man's ground, 

 who gives licence. But in case of a river, where one or more 

 have liberia piacaria only, it is otherwise ; for there the fishes 

 are said to be ferae natura ; 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 understood 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 party hath 

 a property in them, as in the case of a standing pool. 



But where any one hath separalis piscaria, as in Child and Green- 

 hill's case in Trin. 15, Car. I, in the King's Bench, there it seemeth 

 that the fish may be said to be his, because no man else may take them 

 whilst they are within his several fishing. Therefore what is meant 

 by a several fishing is necessary to be considered. And though the 

 difference between a free fishing and a several fishing be often treated 

 of in the ancient books of the law ; and some opinions will have the 

 difference to be great, and others small, or nothing at all, yet the 

 certainest definition of a several fishing is, " Where one hath the 

 royalty, and owneth the ground on each side of the water;" which 

 agreeth with Sir William Calthorp's case, where an action was brought 

 by him against another for fishing in his several fishing, &c. ; to which 

 the defendant pleaded, that the place wherein the trespass was supposed 

 to be done, contained ten perches of land in length, and twenty perches 

 in breadth, which was his own freehold at the time when the trespass 

 was supposed to be done, and that he fished there as was lawful for him 

 to do ; and this was adjudged a good plea by the whole court : and, 

 upon argument in that very case, it was agreed, that no man could 

 have a several fishing but in his own soil, and that free fishing may be 

 in the soil of another man, which was all agreed unto by Littleton, our 

 famous English lawyer. So that, from all this may be drawn this short 

 conclusion, that if the angler take care that he offend not with his feet, 

 there is no great danger of his hands. 



But there are some covetous rigid persons, whose souls hold no sym- 

 pathy with those of the innocent anglers, having either got to be lords 

 of royalties, or owners of lands adjoining to rivers ; and these do, by 

 some apted clownish nature and education for the purpose, insult and 

 domineer over the innocent angler, beating him, breaking his rod, or 

 at least taking it from him,* and sometimes imprisoning his person as 



* There is no reading this passage without figuring 1 to one's imagination 

 the poor, humble, patient angler, standing still and defenceless, while the 

 merciless lord of the manor is laying on linn with a stick, perhaps the butt 

 of his own rod, or a worse weapon. I will not dispute with the author, 

 whether the meekness and submission of the poor fisher upon this occasion 

 are very becoming or not : but thi* sort of passive valour is rather to he 

 admired than imitated. Yet has the angler his remedy, as the reader will 

 see a few line* below. 



