CARP. I 



that at so early a date as the twentieth year of Henry the 

 Third, (who was declared of age in the year 1222,) in conse- 

 quence of their being so often plundered, the lords demanded 

 of the king the imprisonment of such as trespassed on these 

 waters or the parks, but without making any reference to rivers; 

 in which latter we may suppose the more native fishes would 

 be found. But the law then made availed but little; for we 

 find again in the third year of Edward the First, who was 

 crowned in the year 1274, that punishment was decreed on 

 such as trespassed on parks and ponds; and although it will 

 be admitted that there are other valuable fishes, as the Tench, 

 preserved in these ponds, yet, coupled with the authority of 

 the Book of St. Albans, we are inclined to believe that the 

 principal object of these thieves was to obtain this otherwise 

 unattainable fish; for the rivers, which are not mentioned in the 

 laws then made, were not in general at that time specially 

 protected or forbidden to the public, and would have afforded 

 the more common sorts in abundance; and yet, the value set 

 on the Carp as a luxury appears to rest much on the manner 

 in which it was prepared for the table; with which also fashion 

 must have had much to do. Izaac Walton informs us that 

 it was cooked with wine, spices, and strong ingredients, by 

 which its native taste was disguised, or its soft and watery 

 inanity overcome. But the more favoured luxury was its 

 characteristic palate, or, as fashion chose to term it, the tongue, 

 of which the cost must have been the chief recommendation. 

 I possess a note written at the beginning of the last century 

 by an observant gentleman, in which he says that in the month 

 of June, at a dinner provided out of the proceeds of a wager, 

 one dish consisted of the palates of Carps stewed; for which 

 piece of elegancy forty-three brace of Carps were purchased. 

 This dish appears indeed to have been of old standing, for it 

 is alluded to, among other extravagances, by Ben Jonson: — 



"The tongues of Carps, Dormice, and Camels' heels, 

 Boiled in the spirit of Sol." 



As it is sometimes found difficult even for the owner of a 

 pond, when it is thickly grown with weeds, among which Carps 

 seek refuge, to obtain these fish when he wants them, as is 

 particularly the case when the wisdom of the fish has been 



