THE CARP FAMILY. , 101 



may be mentioned : the River 

 several large ponds at Wimbledon, belonging, a few years 

 ago, to Mrs. Marryatt and to Mr. Beaumont. In all these 

 waters I have frequently seen Carp which averaged nearly 

 double the weights quoted above; and in the lake in 

 Wimbledon Park I took on one occasion, with a landing- 

 net, a specimen weighing upwards of 19 Ibs. Much larger 

 fish are, however, by no means unknown ; whilst in Hol- 

 land and other Continental states they sometimes exceed 

 30 and 401bs. in weight*. 



Of English Carp, the largest on record, so far as I am 

 aware, appear to have been a brace weighing 38 Ibs., sent 

 by Mr. Ladbroke, from his park at Gatton, Surrey, to Lord 

 Egremont, as challenge -specimens to compare with the 

 Carp of Sussex f. A Carp is mentioned as having been 

 taken from a piece of water at Stourhead in 1793 which 

 was 30 inches long, upwards of 22 inches in girth, and 

 which weighed 18 Ibs. At Weston Hall, Staffordshire, the 

 seat of the Earl of Bradford, is preserved the painting of 

 another which weighed 19| Ibs., and was caught in a lake 

 called the " White Sitch." These are the few large fish 

 that happen to have been chronicled from English waters ; 

 but I am convinced that many much larger ones have been 

 taken. 



* Valenciennes, Histoire des Poissons. 

 \ Daniel's Kural Sports. 



