FIRST " ENGLISH TREATISE ON FISHING " 55 



The earliest description of fishing in the EngHsh language 

 meets us in The Colloquy of Aelfric, a.d. 995, which Skeat first 

 brought to notice and first " EngHshed " in The Oldest English 

 Treatise on Fishing.^ This takes the form of a short dialogue 

 introduced into the Colloquy written by Aelfric, Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, for the purpose of teaching his pupils Latin, and 

 therefore written in Anglo-Saxon with a Latin translation 

 beneath. "It is arranged as a conversation between the 

 master and his pupil ; the latter in turns figuring as huntsman^ 

 fisherman, falconer." 



The length of the Colloquy, even of the fishing portion, 

 prevents inclusion here, but the pupil's objection to fishing in 

 the sea, " because rowing is troublesome to me," and to going 

 a-whaUng, " because I had rather catch a fish I can kill than 

 one that can, with one stroke, kill both me and my comrades," 

 strikes me as well taken and pertinent. 



A poem by Piers of Fulham, written about 1420 (the 

 original MS. of which can be seen at Trinity College, Cambridge) 

 claims next our notice. The author, judging from Hartshorne's 

 rendering, fully justifies the description of him as a somewhat 

 pessimistic angler. He seems to have anticipated De Quincey's 

 " fishing is an unceasing expectation and a perpetual disap- 

 pointment." He fully appreciated its difficulties and dis- 

 appointments, but clearly possessed some sportsmanhke 

 instincts, as the following, among other, verses show 2 : — 



" And ete the olde fishe, and leva the yonge, 

 Though they moore towgh be uppon the tonge." 



A Latin book Dialogus creaturarum optime moralizatus 

 was pubHshed in 1480 ; a translation about 1520 styles it 

 The Dialogues of Creatures Moralysed. This very rare work, 

 which I have found fully dealt with from an Angler's point of 

 view only by Dr. Turrell, furnishes the earliest known illustra- 

 tion of an angler fishing with a float. 



Next in date, and last to be noticed here, comes the famous 



^ The Angler's Note-Book, ist series (1880), p. 76. 



2 Cf. Turrell, op. cit., 4. In " and with angle hookys " in Piers, Mr. 

 Marston, op. cit., 2, sees " probably the earliest known reference to angling in 

 EngHsh." 



