18 TREATISE ON FLY-FISHING. 



The work which appeared in 1496, was printed 

 by Wynkyn de Worde, and is known by the 

 name of the " Book of St. Albans," from its 

 having been first printed in the monastery there 

 in 1486. This book is a small folio of seventy- 

 three leaves, and contains short treatises on 

 hawking, hunting, fishing, &c. How long the 

 latter art had been practiced in England before 

 this publication, is not known ; but the directions 

 for dressing the twelve different kind of flies, 

 (which even Walton, writing a hundred and fifty 

 years later, availed himself of) are not such, as 

 were likely to be suggested in the infancy of the 

 art. 



The treatise commences with the following 

 expositions : 



" Solomon in his parables saith, ' that a good 

 spirit maketh a flourishing age ;' that is, a fair age 

 and a long." " If a man lack leech and medicine, 

 he shall make three things, his leech and medi- 

 cine, and he shall need never no more. The first 



