SPORTING LITERATURE. 3 



written in Latin for Charles II., the Bourbon 

 King of Sicily, and only two have any connex- 

 ion with England. Moreover, of these two, 

 only one springs from English soil, and that 

 was written not in English but Norman French, 

 while the other, the Master of Game, is a 

 translation of a French work. When therefore 

 the first book on fly fishing was written, shortly 

 after the end of the period, for its date is 

 certainly not later than 1450 and possibly 

 earlier, it came into the world against a back- 

 ground which was entirely French. It arose 

 out of, and is deeply moulded and conditioned 

 by, French writings; it is their offspring, and 

 could be that of none other. Neither its form 

 nor still less its spirit can be understood unless 

 something is known of the literature of sport 

 during those two centuries : something of the 

 books, and of the men who wrote them; who 

 they were, the part they played in the world's 

 affairs and above all their attitude towards 

 sport. It is a fascinating enquiry, for it leads 

 us among great books and great men ; but apart 

 from its charm it is a necessary one. Without 

 it the earliest English fishing book cannot be 

 understood. But that book has set its seal deep 

 on subsequent books, and the impress remains 

 clear and sharp to the present day. When you 

 read a good modern fishing book such as Lord 

 Grey's Fly Fishing you, all unknowingly it may 

 be, are reading something which can trace a 

 direct descent from the earliest sporting litera- 



