RIVER GARDENS; 
Prom the custom of keeping them in artificial 
ponds, the great age to which a Carp will live has 
been frequently noticed, and there are several cases 
recorded of their living for a 100 and even 150 
years. The celebrated tame Carps of the ponds of 
Fontainebleau are, indeed, said to have been placed 
there in the reign of Francis I., which would give 
them a much greater age. It is said, however, 
that after a certain time they lose the golden hue 
of their scales, which assume an ashy tone, by which 
their advanced age may he known. 
Mascal claims the credit of having introduced 
Carp into England, hut they were certainly known 
before this time, if, indeed, in our southern waters 
they are not indigenous. In the curious hook of 
Dame Juliana Berners, prioress of Sopewell Nun¬ 
nery, called the “ Boke of St. Alban’s,” and printed 
at Westminster in 1496, by Wynkyn de Worde, the 
Carp is mentioned as “ a deyntous fishand in the 
privy purse expenses of Henry VIII., for the year 
1532, various sums are entered as paid to persons 
for bringing Carps to the king. 
The Carp loves sluggish rivers, especially when 
the bed is formed of soft mud; hut he grows much 
more freely in some waters than others, without 
any apparent cause. In Scotland Carp grow very 
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