to catch a Pike thus do you no good, yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when he is caught is choicely good; for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the better for not being common. But with my direction you must take this caution, that your Pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than half a yard, and should be bigger. 66 First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a little slit towards the belly. Out of these, take his guts; and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small, with thyme, sweet marjoram, and a little winter-savoury; to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three; both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not; to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted. If the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice: These, being thus mixt, with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the Pike's belly; and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not, then as much of it as you possibly can. But take not off the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four or five or six split sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting; these laths are to be tied round about the Pike's body, from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely; and often basted with claret wine, and anchovies, and butter, mixt together; and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly; and by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete. Then, to the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may either put it into the Pike, with the oysters, two cloves of garlic, and take it whole out, when the Pike is cut off the spit; or, to give the sauce a haut goût, let the dish into which you let the Pike fall be rubbed "Complete Troller," by Ro. Nobbes, 12m0, 1682; the "Angler's sure Guide" already alluded to; Howitt's "Angler's Manual," 1808; and particularly Daniels' "Field Sports," vol. ii., wherein will be found everything necessary to be known on the subject. with it The using or not using of this garlic is left to your discretion.* M. B." This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this secret. Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the Lake Thrasymene in Italy; and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England; and that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest.† Just so doth Sussex boast of four sorts of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout. But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but proceed to give you some observations of the Carp, and how to angle for him; and to dress him, but not till he is caught. CHAP. IX. On the Carp. PISCATOR. THE Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtile fish; that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now * It may perhaps be deemed amusing to compare Walton's method of cooking the Pike, with that practised in the Royal kitchens in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as preserved in the Sloane MS. No. 1201. "For to make a pyke in galentyne. Take a pyke and quarter hym, and sethe hym in scharpe sawse, and than pille awey the skynne and ley hym in a fayre vessell of tre or of erthe, and than take whyte wyne and whyte vynegre, and take fayre breed and put thereto, and make it hoote over the fyre, and than drawe it thorough a streynor. Than caste thereto powdre of pepper and of galyngale of cloves, salt it fayre and gyffe it a lytell hete and stere it wele togedre and put it to thy fyssche, and whan thou wilte have of it. take uppe apece or two with the sawse, and cast powdre of gynger uppon it and serve it forth." "A pyke boyled. Take and make a sawse of fayre water and salt and a lyttell ale and a percyle and then take a pyke and nape hym and drawe hym in the bely, and slytte hym thorow the bely, backe, and hede, and tayle with a knyfe in two peces, and smyte the sydes in quarteres, and wasshe hem clene, and yiffe thow wilt have hym rowride scoche hym by the hede in the backe, and drawe hym there, and scoche hym in two places or iij in the backe, but not thorough. And slytte the pouche and kepe the frye or the lyvre, and cutte awey the galle, and whan the sawse begynneth to boyle, skym it, and wasche the pyke, and cast hym thereinne, and cast the frye and the pouche thereto, and lete it boyle togedres. And then make the sawse thus: mynse small the pouche and the frye in a lytell gravey of the pyke, and cast thereto powdre of gynger, cavell, verjuice, and mustard, and salt." It has been a common notion that the Pike was not extant in England till the reign of Henry the Eighth; but it occurs very frequently in the "Forme of Cury," compiled about 1390. The old name was Luce, or Lucy. An ancient MS. formerly in the possession of John Topham, Esq., written about 1250, mentions “Lupos aquaticos sive Luceos amongst the fish which the fishmongers were to have in their shops. Three Lucies were the arms of the Lucy family, as early as the reign of Henry the Third; and in a contemporary Roll of arms they are thus described, "Geffrey de Lucy, de goules trois lucies d'or.' In the 6th Rich. II. Ao. 1382, the mayor and citizens of London prayed that no fishmonger, nor any other person free of the City, might thenceforward buy any kind of fish to sell again in the City, excepting pikes and fresh eels, "forspris pikes, anguilles fresshes," &c. Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 142.b In the Roll of the same Parliament, the words "horspris anguilles fresshes, beketes ou pikes," occur. Ibid. Compare Pennant's Zoology, vol. iii. p. 280, 4to. Lelandi Collectanea, vol. vi. 1, 5, 6. That the Pike was here in Edward the Third's time is evident from Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, edit. Tyrwh. p. 351, 352: "Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe, with it: The using or not using of this garlic is left to your discretion.* M. B." This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this secret. Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the Lake Thrasymene in Italy; and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England; and that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of four sorts of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout. But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but proceed to give you some observations of the Carp, and how to angle for him; and to dress him, but not till he is caught. CHAP. IX. On the Carp. PISCATOR. THE Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtile fish; that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now It may perhaps be deemed amusing to compare Walton's method of cooking the Pike, with that practised in the Royal kitchens in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as preserved in the Sloane MS. No. 1201. "For to make a pyke in galentyne. Take a pyke and quarter hym, and sethe hym in scharpe sawse, and than pille awey the skynne and ley hym in a fayre vessell of tre or of erthe, and than take whyte wyne and whyte vynegre, and take fayre breed and put thereto, and make it hoote over the fyre, and than drawe it thorough a streynor. Than caste thereto powdre of pepper and of galyngale of cloves, salt it fayre and gyffe it a lytell hete and stere it wele togedre and put it to thy fyssche, and whan thou wilte have of it. take uppe apece or two with the sawse, and cast powdre of gynger uppon it and serve it forth." "A pyke boyled. Take and make a sawse of fayre water and salt and a lyttell ale and a percyle and then take a pyke and nape hym and drawe hym in the bely, and slytte hym thorow the bely, backe, and hede, and tayle with a knyfe in two peces, and smyte the sydes in quarteres, and wasshe hem clene, and yiffe thow wilt have hym rownde scoche hym by the hede in the backe, and drawe hym there, and scoche hym in two places or iij in the backe, but not thorough. And slytte the pouche and kepe the frye or the lyvre, and cutte awey the galle, and whan the sawse begynneth to boyle, skym it, and wasche the pyke, and cast hym thereinne, and cast the frye and the pouche thereto, and lete it boyle togedres. And then make the sawse thus: mynse small the pouche and the frye in a lytell gravey of the pyke, and cast thereto powdre of gynger, cavell, verjuice, and mustard, and salt." It has been a common notion that the Pike was not extant in England till the reign of Henry the Eighth; but it occurs very frequently in the "Forme of Cury," compiled about 1390. The old name was Luce, or Lucy. An ancient MS. formerly in the possession of John Topham, Esq., written about 1250, mentions "Lupos aquaticos sive Luceos" amongst the fish which the fishmongers were to have in their shops. Three Lucies were the arms of the Lucy family, as early as the reign of Henry the Third; and in a contemporary Roll of arms they are thus described, "Geffrey de Lucy, de goules trois lucies d'or.' In the 6th Rich. II. Ao. 1382, the mayor and citizens of London prayed that no fishmonger, nor any other person free of the City, might thenceforward buy any kind of fish to sell again in the City, excepting pikes and fresh eels, "forspris pikes, anguilles fresshes," &c. Rot. Parl. vol. in. p. 142.b In the Roll of the same Parliament, the words "horspris anguilles fresshes, beketes ou pikes," occur. Ibid. Compare Pennant's Zoology, vol. iii. p. 280, 4to. Lelandi Collectanea, vol. vi. 1, 5, 6. That the Pike was here in Edward the Third's time is evident from Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, edit. Tyrwh. p. 351, 352: "Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe, |