66 American Fisheries Society 



As regards fishing, probably the earliest mention of 

 the subject in England occurs in "Magna Charta." The 

 library owns a copy of this, published in 1556, which 

 formerly belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. It is in the 

 original binding, showing the Tudor rose and crown. 

 Books from Queen Mary's library are excessively rare, 

 the late Queen Victoria even, never having been able to 

 obtain one. 



In 1651 was published a small volume called "The Art 

 of Angling" by Thomas Barker. It is so scarce that this 

 library does not own a copy. A reprint of it was pub- 

 lished in 1820. Of this reprint 100 copies were issued, 

 also four copies on straw colored paper and one on vel- 

 lum. The library has one of the ordinary edition, two 

 of the straw colored copies, and the vellum one. Anent 

 this book and these copies, an interesting story, illus- 

 trating the smallness of the world, may be told. In one 

 of the straw colored copies, which belonged to Thomas 

 Gosden, the celebrated English XIX Century sportsman, 

 bibliophile and binder of angling books, and was bound 

 by him, is a note in his autograph: "There is also one 

 reprint on vellum, which I have. T. Gosden." Is it not 

 strange that after one hundred years these two little 

 volumes should come together on one shelf, never again 

 to be separated? This Barker was a cook, who, devoted 

 to fishing, wrote his experiences. In his second edition, 

 published in 1653, in the epistle dedicatory, he boasts of 

 his skill and declares he takes as much pleasure in the 

 dressing of fish as in the taking of them, "and to show 

 how I can perform it, to furnish any Lord's table, onely 

 with trouts, as it is furnished with flesh, for 16 to 20 

 dishes. And I have a desire to preserve their health 

 (with help of God) to go dry in their boots and shoes 

 in angling, for age taketh the pleasure from me." 



The subject of fish cookery was one that occupied a 

 good deal of attention in the old days when the church 

 ruled the state and the eating of fish was compulsory 

 upon rich and poor alike. Books of many pages have 

 been written on the various methods of cooking one fish, 



