three small bundles, and put them to your Carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty pickled oysters, and three anchovies. Then pour upon your Carp as much claret wine as will only cover him; and season your claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons. That done, cover your pot and set it on a quick fire, till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take out the Carp, and lay it, with the broth, into the dish, and pour upon it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted, and beaten with half a dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs shred garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up. And much good do you." Dr T.

THE BREAM-Cyprinus Brama - LINNEUS.

Piscator. THE Bream, being at a full growth, is a large and stately fish. He will breed both in rivers and ponds; but loves best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the water and air, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a hog. He is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant, or sweet, than wholeThis fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly in

some.

*Lamb directs Carps to be cut in pieces, and stewed with white wine or claret, seasoning them with salt, pepper, onions shred small, and capers, together with some crusts of bread. It is done enough when the sauce becomes thick.-J. R.

a water that pleases him; yea, in many ponds so fast, as to overstore them, and starve the other fish.

He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in excellent order; he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth; he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone. a bone to help his grinding.* The melter is observed to have two large melts, and the female two large bags of eggs, or

spawn.

Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great number of large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next following winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not one drop of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, though they were diligently searched for and yet the next spring, when the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and fresh water got into the pond, he affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner affirms; and I quote my author, because it seems almost as incredible as the resurrection to an atheist : but it may win something in point of believing it, to him that considers the breeding or renovation of the Silk-worm, and of many insects. And that is considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his History of Life and Death, fol. 20, that there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and some endure longer.

But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish highly; and to that end have this proverb, "He that hath Breams in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome." And it is noted, that the best part of a Bream is his belly and head.† Some say that Breams and Roaches will mix their eggs and melt together; and so there is in many places a bastard breed of Breams, that never come to be either large or good, but very

numerous.

The baits good to catch this are many. First, paste made of brown bread and honey; gentles, or the brood of wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire to make them tough. Or, there is, at the root of docks, or flags, or rushes in watery places, a worm not unlike a maggot, at which Tench [Bream] will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs nipped off, in June and July; or, at several flies, under water,

*This must be a mistake; for no fish grinds, or chews, his food, like land animals, but swallows it whole.-J. R.

The Bream, according to Sir William Dugdale, appears to have been considered a great luxury in England, for in the 7th of Henry V. it was valued at 20d.; and he also states, that, in 1454, "A pie of four of them, in the expenses of two men employed for three days in taking them, in baking them, in flour, in spices, and conveying it from Sutton in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, at Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvjs. ijd.” -Hist. Warw. p. 668.

which may be found on flags that grow near to the water side. I doubt not but that there may be many other baits that are good; but I will turn them all into this most excellent one, either for a Carp or Bream, in any river or mere :* it was given to me by a most honest and excellent angler; and hoping you will prove both, I will impart it to you.

1. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find, without a knot; get a pint, or quart, of them in an evening in garden walks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain; † and put them, with clean moss, well washed and picked, and the water squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into an earthen pot, or pipkin, set dry; and change the moss fresh every three or four days, for three weeks or a month together; then your bait will be at the best, for it will be clear and lively.

:

2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling ready and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling rods; and as many and more silk, or silk and hair lines; and as many large swan or goose quill floats. Then take a piece of lead made after the manner of a carpenter's plummet, and fasten them to the low ends of your lines: then fasten your link-hook also to the lead, and let there be about a foot or ten inches between the lead and the hook but be sure the lead be heavy enough to sink the fleat, or quill, a little under the water; and not the quill to bear. up the lead, for the lead must lie on the ground. Note, that your link next the hook may be smaller than the rest of your line, if you dare adventure, for fear of taking the Pike or Perch, who will assuredly visit your hooks, till they be taken out, as I will shew you afterward, before either Carp or Bream will come near to bite. Note also, that when the worm is well baited, it will crawl up and down as far as the lead will give leave, which much enticeth the fish to bite without suspicion.

3. Having thus prepared your baits, and fitted your tackling, repair to the river, where you have seen them to swim in skulls or shoals, in the summer time, in a hot afternoon, about three or four of the clock; and watch their going forth of their deep holes, and returning, which you may well discern, for they return about four of the clock, most of them seeking food at the bottom, yet one or two will lie on the top of the water rolling and tumbling themselves, whilst the rest are under him at the bottom; and so you shall perceive him to keep sentinel; then mark where he plays most and stays longest, which commonly is in the broadest and deepest place of the river; and there, or near

* Mere is old English for a lake, and is still retained for several of our lakes, as Buttermere, Grassmere.-J. R.

+ As the knot is the sexual swelling of the worm, and as worms do not appear at night except for purveying, I think Walton's directions imprac ticable.J R.

thereabouts, at a clear bottom and a convenient landing place, take one of your angles, ready fitted, as aforesaid, and sound the bottom, which should be about eight or ten feet deep-two yards from the bank is the best. Then consider with yourself, whether that water will rise or fall by the next morning, by reason of any watermills near; and, according to your discretion, take the depth of the place, where you mean after to cast your ground-bait, and to fish to half an inch; that the lead lying on or near the ground-bait, the top of the float may only appear upright half an inch above the water.

Thus you having found and fitted for the place and depth thereof, then go home and prepare your ground-bait, which is, next to the fruit of your labours, to be regarded.

THE GROUND-BAIT.

You shall take a peck, or a peck and a half-according to the greatness of the stream and deepness of the water, where you mean to angle of sweet gross ground barley malt, and boil it in a kettle, (one or two warms is enough ;) then strain it through a bag into a tub-the liquor whereof hath often done my horse much good-and when the bag and malt is near cold, take it down to the water side, about eight or nine of the clock in the evening, and not before, cast in two parts of your ground-bait, squeezed hard between both your hands; it will sink presently to the bottom; and be sure it may rest in the very place where you mean to angle: if the stream run hard, or move a little, cast your malt in handfuls a little higher, upwards the stream. You may, between your hands, close the malt so fast in handfuls, that the water will hardly part it with the fall.

Your ground thus baited, and tackling fitted, leave your bag, with the rest of your tackling and ground-bait, near the sporting place all night; and in the morning, about three or four of the clock, visit the water side, but not too near, for they have a cunning watchman, and are watchful themselves too.

Then gently take one of your three rods, and bait your hook, casting it over your ground-bait, and gently and secretly draw it to you till the lead rests about the middle of the ground-bait.

Then take a second rod, and cast in about a yard above, and your third a yard below the first rod; and stay the rods in the ground: but go yourself so far from the water side, that you perceive nothing but the top of the floats, which you must watch most diligently. Then when you have a bite, you shall perceive the top of the float to sink suddenly into the water; yet, nevertheless, be not too hasty to run to your rods, until you see that the line goes clear away, then creep to the water side, and give as much line as possibly you can: if it be a good Carp or Bream,

they will go to the farther side of the river: then strike gently, and hold your rod at a bent, a little while; but if you both pull together, you are sure to lose your game, for either your line, or hook, or hold, will break; and after you have overcome them, they will make noble sport, and are very shy to be landed. The Carp is far stronger and more mettlesome than the Bream.

Much more is to be observed in this kind of fish and fishing, but it is far fitter for experience and discourse than paper. Only, thus much is necessary for you to know, and to be mindful and careful of, that if the Pike or Perch do breed in that river, they will be sure to bite first, and must first be taken. And for the most part they are very large, and will repair to your groundbait, not that they will eat of it, but will feed and sport themselves amongst the young fry that gather about and hover over the bait.

The way to discern the Pike and take him, if you mistrust your Bream hook-for I have taken a Pike a yard long several times at my Bream hooks, and sometimes he hath had the luck to share my line-may be thus:

Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and bait [with] it: and set it, alive, among your rods, two feet deep from the cork, with a little red worm on the point of the hook: then take a few crumbs of white bread, or some of the ground-bait, and sprinkle it gently amongst your rods. If Mr Pike be there, then the little fish will skip out of the water at his appearance, but the live set bait is sure to be taken.

Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till eight. and if it be a gloomy windy day, they will bite all day long : but this is too long to stand to your rods at one place; and it will spoil your evening sport that day, which is this:

About four of the clock in the afternoon, repair to your baited place; and as soon as you come to the water side, cast in one half of the rest of your ground bait, and stand off; then, whilst the fish are gathering together, (for there they will most certainly come for their supper,) you may take a pipe of tobacco; and then, in with your three rods, as in the morning. You will find excellent sport that evening, till eight of the clock then cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning, by four of the clock, visit them again for four hours, which is the best sport of all; and after that, let them rest till you and your friends have a mind to more sport.

From St James's-tide until Bartholomew's-tide* is the best; when they have had all the summer's food, they are the fattest. Observe, lastly, that after three or four days fishing together,

St James's tide is the 25th of July; St Bartholomew's tide is the 24th of August.-J. R.