INTRODTCTION. 



governments around them, acting in more extended and 

 important spheres, worthy of all imitation and all praise. 



The title of this little volume sufficiently imports its 

 circumscribed contents; it is not our intention to give in- 

 struction in the art of fishing. It would be a task unde- 

 zired and unprofitable to the. present generation. The 

 theory and practice of it is every where known, especial- 

 ly throughout our river intersected Continent. The sub- 

 ject early attracted the attention of the Literati, and was 

 even thought worthy the notice of the fair. 



The Book of St. Albans so called, by Juliana Berners, 

 a'lady of noble family and prioress oif the nunnery of Sop- 

 well near St. Alban's England, was printed in 1486, and 

 contains the first known treatise on fishing, extant. It is 

 therein ranked as pre-eminent to the diversions of hunting, 

 hawking, and fowling, which are considered by the pious 

 authoress as attended with inconveniences and disappoint- 

 ments; whereas in fishing, if his sport fail him, the angler 

 she quaintly remarks, " Atte the leest hath his holsom 

 walke, and mery at his ease, a swete ayre of the swete 

 sauowre of the meede floures, that makyth him hungry; 

 he hereth the melodyous armony of foules; and whiche 

 me seemyth better than alle the noyse of houndys, the 

 blastes of hornys, and the scrye of foules that hunters, 

 fawkeners and foulers can mayke." 



" And if the angler take fysshe, surely thenne is there 

 noo man merier than he is in his spyryte. " 



Moreover in the pious simplicity of ancient days, an- 

 gling was looked on as auxiliary to contemplation, and 

 hence it obtained high favor as a means of recreation with 

 devout persons. 



Independently of its recommendation as in vogue in the 

 apostolic ages, it was sanctioned at a later period of the 

 christian era in practice, by the pious learned Doctor Wm. 

 Perkins and Doctor Wm. Whitaker, both ancient divines 

 of the last of the sixteenth century; by the venerable Doc- 

 tor Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Pauls', in VI Ed- 

 ward's reign 1561, and by the learned and celebrated Pro- 



