CHAP. IX.] THE FOURTH DA K 141 



naturalised. It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr 

 Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, 

 a county * that abounds more with this fish than any in this 

 nation. 



You may remember that I told you Gesner says there are no 

 Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless there was a time, about a hundred 

 or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in England, 

 as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose 

 Chronicle ypu may find these verses : — 



Hops and turkies, carps and beer. 

 Came into England all in a year. 



And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of 

 the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel, 

 the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of its own 

 proper element ; and, therefore, the report of the Carp's being 

 brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the more 

 probable.® 



Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in one 

 year, which Pikes and most other fish do not ; and this is partly 

 proved by tame and wild rabbits ; as also by some ducks, which 

 will lay eggs nine of the twelve months ; and yet there be other 

 ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the 

 rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a 



VARIATION. 



9 Considerable variations exist in the observations on the Carp as printed in the first 

 and second editions of the "Complete Angler." In the former, the commencement of 

 the chapter runs thus ; — ■ 



Piscator. The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not, as it 

 is said, been long in England, but said to be by one Mr Mascall, a gentleman then living 

 at Plumsted in Sussex, brought into this nation : and for the better confirmation of this, 

 you are to remember I told you that Gesner says there is not a pike in Spain, and that 

 except the eel, which lives longest out of the water, there is none that will endure more 

 hardness or live longer than a carp will out of it, and so the report of his being brought 

 out of a foreign nation into this is the more probable. 



■* For proof of this fact, we have the testimony of the author of the Booke of Fishing 

 •with Hooke and Line., 4to, Lond. 1600, who, though the initials only of his name are 



fiven in the title, appears to have been Leonard Mascal, the translator of a book of 

 lantirig and Grafting, 4to, 1589, 1592, and the author of a book On Cattel, 410, 1596. 

 — H. In the Book of St Albans Carp are thus spoken of, which proves that they were 

 known in England for more than a century before Mascal wrote: "The Carp is adeyntous 

 fysshe : but there ben but fewe in Englonde, And therfore I wryte the lasse of hym. 

 He is an evyll fysshe to take, for he is too strong enarmyd in the mouthe, that there 

 maye noo weke harnays holde hym. And as touchyng his baytes I have but lytyll 

 knowlege of it, and we were loth to wryte more than I knowe and have provyd. But 

 well I wote that the redd worme and the menow been good batys for hym at all tymes 

 as I have herde saye of persones credyble and also founde wryten in bokes of credence.'* 

 This writer is, however, decidedly wrong as to the "batys" which " been good for hym 

 at all tymes." The " menow " he will not touch unless compelled by hunger, nor is the 

 "redd worme "by any means so tempting bait as some others. In the Privy Purse 

 Expenses of Kins' Henry the Eighth, in 1532, various entries are made of rewards to 

 persons for bringing Carfes to the King, pp. 62, 74, 100, 267. 



