26g 



CARP^ AND TENCH? 



Each yellow carp in scales bedropp'd with gold. 



Pope's Windsor Forest 



I prithee come dance me a reel, carp, 



I prithee come dance me a reel, — 

 I thank you, my lord, I've no taste for your board, 



You'd much better play to the eel. 



The Cunning Carp and the Contented Knight. 



In the ' Whole Art of Fishing,' we are informed that ' a carp 

 is a stately and very subtle fish called the Fresh-water Fox and 

 Queen of Rivers,' and Randal Holme in his remarkable work, 

 the ' Academie of Armory,' tells us that in Heraldry, ' the carp 

 is the emblem of hospitality and denotes food and nourish- 

 ment from the bearer to those in need.' By this same 

 Randal Holme we are told how every sort of fish are named 

 after their age and growth, and we learn that a carp is first a 

 'seizling,' then a 'sproll or sprale,' before it arrives at the full 

 majesty of carphood. When arrived at its maturity it must be 

 confessed by all who have given much attention to carp catch- 

 ing, that its intellect matures at least in an equal ratio with its 

 body, indeed, I used to call my carp fishing expeditions ' carp 

 bubbles,' to convey my feeling of the entirely illusory nature of 

 the quest as appreciated by many and singular failures. 



The well known Horatian motto, 'Carpe diem,' might, it 

 has been suggested, without doing great violence to the 

 original, be rendered ' Catch your carp to-day,' — that is if you 

 can, — ' for the cunning customer may not be inclined to give 

 you a chance on the morrow.' ^ Its suspicious vigilance even 



1 Cyprinus carpio, ^ Tinea vulgaris. 



' Notes on the Carp by Wm. Pinkerton, F. S.A., ^n Fishing Gossip, edited 

 by H. Cholmondeley-Pennell. Adam and Chas. Black. 



