THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 213 



license, though it be upon a common, or adjoining to the king's highway, 

 or adjoining to another man's groimd, who gives license : but in case of a 

 river, where one or more have libera piscaria only, it is otherwise, for there 

 the fishes are said to be ferae naturae, and the taking of them with an angle 

 is not trespass, for that no man is said to have a property in them till he 

 have caught them, and then it is a trespass for any to take them from him : 

 but this is not to be understood of fishes confined to a man's own ground 

 by gates or otherwise, so that they cannot pass away, but may be taken 

 out or put in at pleasure, for in that case the party hath a property in 

 them, as in the case of a standing pool. 



But where any one hath seperalis piscaria, as in Child and Greenhill's 

 Case in Trin. 15 Car. I. in the King's Bench, there it seemeth that the 

 fish may be said to be his, because no man else may take them whilst they 

 are within his several fishing ; therefore what is meant by a several fishing is 

 necessary to be considered : and though the difference between a free fish- 

 ing and a several fishing be often treated of in the ancient books of the law, 

 and some opinions will have the difference to be great, and others small or 

 nothing at all ; yet the certainest definition of a several fishing is, where one 

 hath the royalty, and owneth the ground on each side of the water : which 

 agreeth with Sir William Calthrop's Case, * where an action was brought 

 by him against another for fishing in his several fishing, &c., to which the 

 defendant pleaded, that the place wherein the trespass was supposed to be 

 done, contained ten perches of land in length, and twenty perches in 

 breadth, which was his own freehold at the time when the trespass was 

 supposed to be done, and that he fished there as was lawful for him to do : 

 and this was adjudged a good plea by the whole court, and upon argument 

 in that very case it was agreed, that no man could have a several fishing 

 but in his own soil, and that free fishing may be in the soil of another man, 

 which was all agreed unto by Littleton our famous English lawyer. So 

 that from all this may be drawn this short conclusion, that if the Angler 

 take care that he offend not with his feet, there is no great danger of his 

 hands. 



But there are some covetous rigid persons, whose souls hold no sympathy 

 with those of the innocent Anglers, having either got to be lords of royalties, 

 or owners of lands adjoining to rivers, and these do, by some apted clownish 

 nature and education for the purpose, insult and domineer over the innocent 

 angler, beating him, breaking his rod, or at least taking it from him, and 

 sometimes imprisoning his person, as if he were a felon : v/hereas a true- 

 bred gentleman scorns those spider-like attempts, and will rather refresh 

 a civil stranger at his table, than warn him from commg on his ground 

 upon so innocent an occasion. It would therefore be considered how far 

 such furious drivers are warranted by the law, and what the Angler may 

 (in case of such violence) do in defence of himself : if I come upon another 

 man's ground without his license, or the license of the law, I am a trespasser, 

 for which the owner may have an action of trespass against me ; and if I 

 continue there after warning to depart by the owner, or his servant there- 

 unto authorised, the owner, or his servant by his command, may put me 

 off by force, but not beat me, but in case of resistance by me, for then I (by 

 resisting) make the assault ; but if he beat me, I not resisting, in that case 

 he makes the assault, and I may beat him in defence of myself, and to 

 free myself from his violence : and in case I shall leave my rod behind in 

 * Mich. 17 E. 4, 6, and Pasc. i8 E. 4, 4. 



