THE CARP FAMILY, 131 



beautiful; but when dressed and brought to table they 

 smelt and tasted so rankly that no one would eat them." 

 By washing the slime off the fish with warm water before 

 cooking, the muddy taste is said to be removed. 



Tench were certainly amongst the hst of monkish deli- 

 cacies, as may be gathered from the fact that, of our ponds 

 which were formerly stews attached to abbeys and other 

 monastic establishments, a large proportion remain stocked 

 with them. In some extensive tracts of water near Yar- 

 mouth these fish are stiU bred in large quantities as a 

 marketable commodity; they are fattened on a mixture of 

 greaves and meal until fit for the table, and, thus prepared, 

 they, as Walton says, " eat pleasantly," and form a by-no- 

 means contemptible addition to the cuisine. 



The ordinary food of the Tench consists of various soft- 

 bodied aquatic animals and vegetable matters; and the 

 best bait for them is a weU-scoured brandling — the method 

 of angling being similar to that already recommended for 

 the Carp (p. 106). They will bite aU through the spring 

 and summer, particularly at the former period, and after 

 or during a mild shower of rain ; but in winter they pro- 

 bably- lie torpid and bury themselves in mud and weeds. 



For the Tench has been always claimed the royal gift of 

 heaHng by touch ; and he has been supposed to possess, in 

 the slime with which he is thickly covered, a natural balsam 

 for the cure of himself and others. Rondeletius says that 

 at Rome he saw a great recovery effected by applying a 

 Tench to the feet of a sick man. But, without trenching 



