2 50 ANGLERS' EVENIXGS. 



book \\c all know well by name, but, from the rarity of 

 the original, and of its reprints of the i6th and 17th 

 centuries, and also of the 1827 reprint, very few I fear 

 know more of it than the title page. It was a compilation 

 of all known facts relating to English sports generally, 

 made by a lady of rank, Dame Juliana Berners. The first 

 edition was printed by Caxton in i486, but did not contain 

 the book upon fishing. The Booke of FyssJiynge wyth an 

 Angle appears for the first time in a reprint of the Booke 

 of St. Albans, printed by Wynkyn de Worde at West- 

 minster, in 1496. It is interesting to note that, as the first 

 book ever printed in England issued from the press in 

 1474, there appears to have been already a demand for 

 printed books on angling twenty-two years after the 

 introduction of the new method of disseminating litera- 

 ture. No paper of this kind would be complete without 

 a slightly extended notice of this w^ork. It is the prototype 

 of all angling books since written, and I am inclined 

 to trace the origin of the title " gentle," which our art by 

 well-acknowledged right now possesses, to the fact that 

 the first angling book known to us was written by a lady, 

 a gentle lady, for she was not only of rank, but was 

 prioress of a nunnery, and famous for her learning and 

 accomplishments. 



This lady gives as her reason for not publishing the 

 book in a separate form, the following, which I have 

 translated into the vernacular : — * 



* The woodcut and a portion of the treatise are to be found in Hawkins' 

 edition of Walton. The woodcut is especially curious as an illustration of the 

 state of the art at that period. 



