Roger North

“ What can be a greater torture, than to live chained to a bed, though the best in the world, and have no company nor business? Therefore court business, if you would pass for an epicurean, and let it be such as brings comfort to nature, and not pain and torment in the consequence; that is to say, lawful, profitable, obliging, and temperate. So you avoid offending the publick, increase your store, win your friends and family, and preserve your health; all which, I take it, are accomplished, in great measure, by the mastery of fish. ”

“ When your pond is dry, concern not yourself to carry out the mud for the first fourteen or fifteen years; and then let it be only out of the pan whence you took the earth to raise the bank, but never break the turf of the rest of the ground flowed: but when it comes to be a yard thick in mere mud, it is good to take it out; for though mud be good to improve ground, yet, when it is taken from the pond, down to the dead earth, your ground and soil are depauperated, and the water by consequence, which cheats the fish, that is, yourself. ”

“ The PEARCH, or PERCH, Is a genus of fish of the order of Thoracci; the characters of these are, that the membrane of the gills has seven bones, and the back has one or two fins; the first spiny, and the second soft: the body is covered with rough scales; the edges of the gill-covers are scaly and serrated. Linnæus enumerates thirty-six species; this fish is variegated with black spots.
There is a strange variety of Pearch; some of which are quite hunched; and the backbone, near to the tail, very much distorted: in colour and other respects, it is similar to the common kind. ”

“ If you would bring more fish together into your stews, you may preserve and improve them by feeding; but there are bounds, because the water is but small, and will not admit any great number: but if you have a great number of fish to be kept for an opportunity, and you put them into a considerable water, you may in that manner stock to any quantity, taking care duly to feed them; and so not only maintain, but improve one thousand per acre; but if thus over-stocked, and you do not feed sufficiently, they will sink, and you be a great loser. ”

“ Many use to break holes to relieve the fish, and, as they think, give them fresh air; some have put dung bound up together into the holes, as if the warmth of that keeping the hole open would preserve the fish; but these ways, and all others that I have heard of, except taking out the fish, are mere vanities. I have cut many holes, and large ones, and employed men to take out the ice, and keep them open, but to no advantage. ”

“ It is a common observation, that some waters will, and others will not breed. It is my experience, that most waters, the first year after having lain dry a summer, do breed, and that numerously, especially carps, which I have known increase to such an incredible fry, that I have been troubled how to dispose them, so as to have them again after three or four years, when they became good stock for great waters. Eels and perch are of very good use to keep down the breed of fish; for they prey much upon the spawn and fry of bred fish, and will probably destroy the superfluity of them. ”

“ For it is the nature of fish in cold weather to lie as close and deep as they can; so that nothing but the pangs of death shall make them move. If no holes are broke, they will rise and stick to the ice, and be frozen to it; if there be holes, they will move about them, as if they came up for fresh air.
When the frost hath continued long, and hard, that you begin to suspect your fish, you may make a trial by cutting holes in several places, some in the middle, and some by the sides of the waters that are obnoxious ”

“ I do yet believe, that a sort of fish, bred in great numbers in bad waters, over-stocked, and almost starved, may in process of time degenerate, and both lose a good shape, and be [54] less apt to grow up to a due greatness, than others that have been better descended of a cultivated stock: and on the other side, it is no less possible, that by coming into good quarters, fish may improve and mend; so that a gentleman is to expect the goodness of his fish from the cleanness of his waters, and the plenty of their feed, and not from any choice of his stock or breed ”

“ Some use to put up fish in baskets or hampers for carriage, stowing them with grass between; but this is not so good as water, for the grass cleaving to the slime of the fish, rubs and cleans it from the scales; which done, a carp scarce ever thrives after. And although perhaps the fish may live, they will not grow or thrive, because their natural slime, scarce recoverable, is rubbed off; and for the same reason, it is not good to let carps lie at all in grass, but keep them always in water, to preserve them from bruises, and losing their slime. ”

“ In October, or after, draw the sluice of the first made pond, and lay it as dry as possible you can. It may be the sluice, especially if the pond be many acres, will not vent the water suddenly. That is of no great import, because, as the waters fall, you will have opportunity of fishing with nets, and so clear the fish by degrees; which left to the last, will be too great a burden to clear, and will not be done without damage; besides, the hurry will disorder every thing. If the sluice will not vent all the water from the pan, a labourer or two will soon throw it out with scuppets. ”

“ Varieties in nature are infinite, and in the several breeds of fish, as of other creatures: yet I have not observed so much of it in carps, that I could tell how to distinguish them, where I could promise myself better success with one sort than another. ”

“ But you may contrive to keep your stock within compass; for you may enlarge the expence in your house, and gratify your family and friends that visit you, with a dish as acceptable as any you can purchase for money; or you may oblige your friends and neighbours, by making presents of them, which, from the countryman to the king, is well taken; for many that have waters, not being in a method of husbanding them, as well as others that have none, want and desire fish, and look upon such a present, as of a rarity, valuing it not by your plenty, but their own scarcity. ”

“ The symptom of mortality to your fish in time of frost, is, their shewing themselves; which if you perceive in the least, conclude all are going; and without a thaw, that water will not keep them alive. ”

“ But we must go farther: ground shall be vastly improved by fish, and shall be intrinsically worth, and yield more this way, than by any other employment you can give it: for suppose it meadow of two pounds per acre (which is an high value for the best meadow far from London) , I will justify, that four acres in pond shall return you every year one thousand carps fed up, from — to fourteen or fifteen inches, besides pikes, perch, and tench, and other fry, useful on many accounts, if the water suits them. ”

“ If your stock be very great, you may let your ponds stand full two or three years, but not longer, unless you delight to see starved lean fish; for such they will certainly be, unless you keep an under-stock by three-fourths continuing in the same water four or five years. And it is a certain rule, that the oftener waters are laid dry, the better the feed of the fish shall be, and more shall be maintained. And a little experience will demonstrate the advantage to be great, as to the size, fatness, and sweetness of the fish. ”

“ Waters may be over-stocked, as pastures often are; so both may be under-stocked. The latter is the less error; for if you over-stock, you lose the whole summer’s seed; if you under-stock, you lose only the rest of your profit; what you do seed, is much the better, and turns to account by more ready sale. So also of beasts; some of the same age and seeding will not thrive so well as others. I have found the like in my fish. And waters themselves, like pastures, have varieties of goodness; some will raise carps from five to eighteen inches, in five years; others will not do it in ten. ”

“ In a stew you may keep up thirty or forty carps, from October to March in winter, without feeding; and by fishing with trammels or flews in March or April, you may take from your great waters, to recruit the stews; but you must not fail to feed all summer, from March to October again, as constantly as your cooped chickens are fed, and to as good and certain account. The reason you feed in summer, and not in winter, is, because the fish will lie close in cold weather, and feed little, not caring to stir, especially upon the shoals, where it is proper to give them meat. ”

“ The second kind of ponds are the nurseries; the young fish should be moved, in a fine calm day, into this pond, in the months of March or April: a thousand or twelve hundred of this fry may be well accommodated in a pond of an acre. When they are first put in, they should be well watched, and driven from the sides of the pond, lest they become the prey of rapacious birds. In two summers, they will grow as much as to weigh four, five, or even six pounds, and be fleshy and well tasted. ”

“ Now, as for your stews, the care of feeding is best instructed to a butler or gardener, who are or should be always at home, because the constancy and regularity of serving the fish, conduce very much to their well eating and thriving; for [61] they will expect their meat as duly as horses, and appetite in any creature wastes by disappointment.
Any sort of grain boiled is good to feed with, especially malt coarse ground. Pease boiled a turn or two are as good as any other grain. The grains after a brewing, while they are good and sweet, are very proper ”

“ I know by experience you may safely carry three hundred carps, six and seven inches long, in one hogshead; but from seven to a foot, not so many by a fourth part. If they exceed a foot, then not above seventy or eighty in a hogshead. Let every hogshead have ten or twelve pails of fresh clean water (not well-water) , every six or seven miles, if it may be had. There is no need of any great liberty for the fish, if their water be fresh, and often renewed; for one great use of the water is to bury the fish, that with mere weight they might not crush and destroy one another. ”

“ As for pike, which are inferior to no fresh-water fish, and now more esteemed than ever, being less plentiful upon draining the fens, and so harm more; they are dangerous guests in the great waters; for if grown large, they will devour and destroy the best fish, and depopulate the water. But thus far you may trust them; if you can procure one hundred jacks once in two years not exceeding nine inches, you may put them with the carps into your great waters, so as your carps are not under nine or ten inches ”

“ For such gross works as this may be put out to undertakers, and you may compute by the solid foot or yard, what the charge will be; and the masters will see the men work, which you cannot do if you are master, and do all by the day. Then, every one delights to have raised walks and terraces about an house and garden; so that the earth being employed in such, and raising mounts in proper places, will produce a real equivalent for the charge: but this is a digression which here I conclude, and return to the affair of fish. ”

“ When you feed in the greater waters, where the numbers are also great, it will be a charge as well as trouble; but when you take out the fish, and see how they are thriven, you will [62] allow both well employed. Either malt boiled, or fresh grains, is the best food in this case: and what is not supplied from your own house and brewings, you may take of neighbouring alehouses, who will be willing, for a small matter, to throw into the water, at a place you shall assign, a certain quantity every brewing. Thus carps may be fed and raised like capons. ”

“ If the soil about the waters be any thing moorish, it may be planted with osiers, which yield a certain yearly crop.
4. The feed of the pond when laid dry, or the corn, that is, oats, which you may have upon the bottom, though mere mud, is very considerable. This hath been touched before.
5. You will invite all manner of help to your fishing, by the fry given among those who assist you; and though you pay them, they will expect fish; and with expectations of carrying home a dish of fresh fish, men will work in wet and dirt, to a wonder, without other pay. ”

“ If you do not give the bed of clay this foundation, the water lying under a great weight from the depth of it, will work itself underneath, so allow a spit or two at least for it. Then, as you ram the clay, you must be sure that earth be brought to carry the bank up with it, or else the sun will search and crack it, which is of pernicious consequence; so when it is come to its full height, close and cover it with earth immediately, lest the inconvenience happens. ”

“ The best manner of fishing for them is thus: prepare a very strong rod of sufficient length; fix a grashopper to the hook; place yourself so as not to be perceived by the fish, and drop in the bait about two feet from the place where a Chub lies; if he does not see the angler, he rarely fails biting, and is taken directly; but he is so strong a fish, that he should be taken out carefully, after a great deal of play, otherwise the tackle will be in danger; a beetle, or any large fly, will answer the purpose in the place of a grashopper ”