56 INTRODUCTION 



Treaty se of Fysshynge with an Angle, printed at Westminster by 

 Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 as part of the second edition of 

 The Boke of St. Albans. Whether, as has been commonly 

 supposed, Dame JuHana Berners wrote it, or whether any 

 such lady ever existed, are points of controversy, but that 

 The Treatyse was not an immaculate conception, without 

 parents or ancestors, can be reasonably proved by its reference 

 to earher writers on fishing, and to its " these ben the xii flies 

 ye shall use " being introduced as a precept of practice rather 

 than a revelation of invention. 



If few the forbears of what some term " not only the 

 first anghng manual in England, but also the first practical 

 work written in any language," its vitaUty and its prohlic 

 progeny admit of no doubt. According to Mr. A. Lang (who 

 accounts for the starthng fact by the increased number of 

 people able to read owing to the spread of education) no less 

 than ten editions of The Boke were issued within four years of 

 pubHcation, while Dr. Turrell limits himself to fourteen 

 undated editions between 1500 and 1596. 



Whatever the number of the editions, the need for and the 

 vitaUty of The Treatyse is demonstrated by the fact that for 

 over a hundred years no new work on Anghng was printed in 

 England, and between it and The Compleat Angler — a space of 

 over one hundred and fifty years— there occur but four books 

 on the subject. 1 To its prohfic progeny, the Bibliotheca 

 Piscatoria bears witness 2 in its catalogue of some fifteen 

 hundred authors and of countless books, MSS. etc. 



We owe, it is said, this voluminous hterature to the 

 geographical position of England, which lends itself very 

 favourably to the pursuit of all kinds of fishing. Can we, also, 

 flatteringly add the other factor of Lacepede's dictum, " II y 

 a cette difference entre la chasse et la peche, que cette derniere 

 convient aux peuples les plus civiUses ? " 



But the pursuit of fishing did not prevail in early England 



1 Cf. M.G. Watkins, Introduction to the Treatyse, etc. (London, 1880), p. xi. 



* It enumerates 3158 distinct editions of 2148 different fishing works 

 published before 1S83. The Supplement issued by Mr. R. B. Marston in igor 

 gives 1200 more. Mr. Eric Parker's delightsome and pocket-companionable 

 An Angler's Garland. London, 1920, gives many happy extracts from the 

 fifteen hundred, and present-day writers. 



