194 The Troiits of America 



The Macedonians, before the age of Alexan- 

 der the Great, used a crude fly made of purple 

 wool with wings, which they called the " hippu- 

 rus " ; it was said to be of the size of a hornet, 

 marked like a wasp, and when manipulated, 

 buzzed like a bee ; it was used to lure the 

 fishes of the river Astreus and those of smaller 

 streams, which were said by ^lian to have been 

 "speckled fishes." 



In the prophecies of Isaiah, chap. xix. ver. 8, 

 the unrighteous fishermen are warned in these 

 words : — 



" The fishers also shall mourn and all they 

 that cast angles into the brooks." 



In i486, six years before the discovery of 

 America, Wynken de Worde, among the first of 

 English printers, published that famous work, 

 " The Booke of St. Albans " on " the dyssporte of 

 fysshyng " by Dame Juliana Berners or Barnes, 

 the Prioress of Sopwell in England ; it was the 

 first book on fish and fishing printed in the 

 English language. 



From about the same period we have handed 

 down to us a canticle sung by the monks, the 

 words of which are redolent with the spirit of 

 angling : — 



