].32 



ANGLING. 



TJIE PIKE."* 



This " fell tyrant of the liquid plain" is not 

 regarded as indigenous to the waters of Britain, 

 hut is said to have been introduced in the time of 

 Henry VIII. That it was well known in England 

 at an earlier period is however evident, both from 

 the book of St. Alban's, printed by Wynken de 

 Worde in 1496, and from the account of the great 

 feast given by George Nevil, archbishop of York, 

 in the year 1466. There is in truth no evidence 

 either of its non-existence in this country at a 

 remote period, or of its importation during com- 

 paratively recent times. (* 



* Esox lucius, Linn. 



f" " That pike," says Mr. Yarrell, " were rare formerly, may be 

 inferred from the fact, that in the latter part of the thirteenth century, 

 Edward the First, who con descended to regulate the prices of the dif- 

 ferent sorts of fish then brought to market, that his subjects might not 

 be left to the mercy of the venders, fixed the value of pike higher 

 than that of fresh salmon, and more than ten times greater than 

 that of the best turbot or cod. In proof of the estimation in which 

 pike were held in the reign of Edward the Third, I may again refer 

 to the time of Chaucer, already quoted at page 336. Pikes are men- 



