FROM TREATISE TO COMPLEAT ANGLER. 39 



Many owners too let their waters without 

 reserving a close time. He gives careful direc- 

 tions about destruction of vermin : the heron, 

 otter, water rat, kingfisher, cormorant, dab- 

 chick, coot and osprey are all condemned, and 

 very excellent advice is given about protecting 

 fish spawn. Altogether, the book is a combina- 

 tion of good and bad. Mascall, in such parts 

 as he pirated, is so careless that often he does 

 not trouble to see that what he writes makes 

 sense, but in what appears to be original he is 

 good. He clearly was a good sportsman : the 

 preservation of fish was what chiefly interested 

 him, and he remarks bitterly that there are 

 many that kill fish but few that save and pre- 

 serve them. 



Mascall was the channel through which the 

 Treatise reached Walton. This is proved by 

 the names of the flies. Mascall copied the 

 Treatise's list; but of four flies, either through 

 misreading or intention, he gives names dif- 

 ferent from those in the Treatise, and in every 

 case Walton gives the same. Thus the fly made 

 of 'roddyd' wool becomes the Ruddy Fly, and 

 the Dun Cut, Maure Fly and Tandy Fly of the 

 Treatise become respectively the Sad Yellow 

 Fly, the More or Moorish Fly and the Tawny 

 Fly in Mascall. In all four cases Walton fol- 

 lows Mascall, not the Treatise. Markham also 

 copied Mascall, not the Treatise, but differs 

 slightly from him, and where he differs Walton 

 follows Mascall, not him. None of the three 



