UARP. 
7 
that at so early a date as the twentieth year of Henry the 
Thiid, (who was declared of age in the year 1223,) in conse- 
quence of their being so often plundered, the lords demanded 
of the king the imprisonment of such as trespassed on these 
waters or the parks, but without making any reference to rivers; 
in which latter we may suppose the more native fishes would 
be found. But the law then made availed but little; for we 
find again in the third year of Edward the First, who was 
crowned in the year 1274, that punishment was decreed on 
such as trespassed on parks and ponds; and although it will 
be admitted that there are other valuable fishes, as the Tench, 
preserved in these ponds, yet, coupled with the authority of 
the Book of St. Albans, we are inclined to believe that the 
principal object of these thieves was to obtain this otherwise 
unattainable fish; for the rivers, which are not mentioned in the 
laws then made, were not in general at that time specially 
protected or forbidden to the public, and would have afforded 
the more common sorts in abundance; and yet, the value set 
on the Carp as a luxury appears to rest much on the manner 
in which it was prepared for the table; with which also fashion 
must have had much to do. Izaac Walton informs us that 
it was cooked with wine, spices, and strong ingredients, by 
which its native taste w^as disguised, or its soft and w'atery 
inanity overcome. But the more favoured luxury was its 
characteristic palate, or, as fashion chose to term it, the tongue, 
of which the cost must have been the chief recommendation! 
I possess a note written at the beginning of the last century 
by an observant gentleman, in which he says that in the month 
of June, at a dinner provided out of the proceeds of a wager, 
one dish consisted of the palates of Carps stewed; for which 
piece of elegancy forty-three brace of Carps were purchased. 
1 his dish appears indeed to have been of old standing, for it 
is alluded to, among other extravagances, by Ben Jonson: — 
*Tlie tongues of Carps, Dormice, and Camels’ heels, 
Boiled ill the spirit of Sol.” 
As it is sometimes found difficult even for the owner of a 
pond, when it is thickly grown wdth weeds, among which Carps 
seek refuge, to obtain these fish when he wants them, as is 
particularly the case when the wisdom of the fish has been 
