AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 37 



difficult to obtain, only a limited number of copies having 

 been printed. The editions of the combined treatises of 

 Dame Juliana Berners have been numerous. Mr. Stock has 

 also reproduced in fac-simile the whole of the original Book 

 of i486. 



Looking to the contents of the Treatyse of Fysshynge 

 itself, admirers of old authors on the gentle craft can 

 hardly be enthusiastic in its praise as a literary production, 

 nor can modern anglers derive any useful knowledge from 

 it. It is rather as a literary curiosity than as a book of 

 practical value that it must be regarded, as the following 

 extracts, which perhaps had better be given in the more 

 modern English of later editions, will show. The Dame 

 introduces her subject in this strain : — ■ 



" Solomon in his parables saith that a good spirit maketh a 

 flowering age, that is, a fair age and a long. And sith it is so : I 

 ask this question which be the means and the causes that induce 

 a man into a merry spirit? Truly to my best discretion, it 

 seemeth good disports and honest 'games in whom a man joyeth 

 without any repentance after. Then followeth it that good 

 disports and honest games be cause of man's fair age and long 

 life. And, therefore, now will I choose of four good disports and 

 honest games, that is to wit : of hunting, hawking, fishing, and 

 fowling." 



She has no hesitation in saying, " The best to my simple 

 discretion which is fishing, called angling with a rod, and a 

 line, and a hook," and then she goes on to contrast it with 

 various other sports : — 



" Hunting as to my intent is too laborious, for the hunter must 

 always run and follow his hounds travelling and sweating full sore ; 

 he bloweth till his lips blister ; and when he weneth it be a hare, 

 full oft it is a hedge-hog. Thus he chaseth and wots not what. 

 He cometh home at even, rain-beaten, pricked, and his clothes 

 torn, wet shod, all miry, some hound lost, some surbat. Such 



