352 THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 



often treated of in the antient 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 Calthorps 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 sympathy with those of the innocent anglers, hav- 

 ing 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 domi- 

 neer over the innocent angler, beating him, breaking his 

 rod, or at least taking it from him, 1 and sometimes impri- 

 soning his person as if he were a felon. Whereas a true- 



(1) There U BO reading this passage without figuring to one's imagination the 

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

 lord of the MOOT is laying him on 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 ; 

 bnt this sort of passive valour is rather to be admired thao imitated. Yet ha* 

 the angler his remedy, as the reader will see a few lines below. 



