( vi ) 



are the most appropriate and best illustrative of the 

 matter in hand, just as the "beaten paths" of travel are 

 " beaten " because they are the most interesting and 

 striking. A considerable portion of the quotations is from 

 authors of early or comparatively early periods, whose 

 works are not so easily accessible to' general readers as are 

 those of more modern date. 



Among the books to which the writer is indebted are 

 i^hose mentioned towards the end of the first chapter ; but 

 he would specially acknowledge the invaluable assistance 

 of the Bibliotheca Piscatoria recently published. A longer 

 and fuller chronological survey of piscatory, and especially 

 of purely angling literature than that which is here oiTered 

 to angling and other readers, has not, he believes, been 

 hitherto attempted ; and, without the aid of the volume 

 just mentioned, what has been achieved would have been 

 almost impossible. 



The labour has not been a slight one ; and owing to the 

 thousands of references it has involved, many mistakes in 

 names, dates, and other details may have been made. For 

 these he pleads indulgence at the hands of his readers ; 

 and concludes these preliminary remarks with the hope 

 that this little book, like the historic cod-fish caught in 

 Lynn Deep, in 1626, with three literary treatises in its 

 stomach, and served before the Vice-Chancellor at Cam- 

 bridge, will be found at least in some degree to contain 

 " good learninsf and entertainment." 



