8 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



and completed it in the following year, when 

 he was most undeservedly restored to favour 

 and created Master of Game. But he wrote a 

 great book, the first book on sport written in 

 English, and, as I hope to show, the model and 

 archetype of our immense fishing literature. 



By the time of the Duke of York, sporting 

 books had settled into a form which was never 

 afterwards abandoned. They begin with a 

 prologue which sets out the merits of sport 

 compared to other pursuits, treating its subject 

 from the loftiest standpoint, and, in the Middle 

 Ages at any rate, not failing to point out its 

 spiritual as well as its physical advantages. 

 Next follow detailed accounts of the natural 

 history and method of hunting the different 

 animals; then a description of hounds and 

 instruments required for the chase, and at the 

 end there may be an epilogue, modestly com- 

 mending the book to the public, or perhaps 

 containing rules which all sportsmen should 

 follow, or perhaps repeating and re-emphasis- 

 ing the prologue. This, it will be noticed, is 

 the form of the Compleat Angler, and indeed, 

 with the changes that two and a half centuries 

 bring, of the fishing book of to-day. Izaak 

 Walton did not originate that form, nor indeed 

 did the Treatise : it comes from the Master of 

 Game. So it is necessary to give a short account 

 of the shape and spirit of that great book. 



No one leads a happier or more virtuous life 

 than the huntsman, says the prologue. He has 



