26 



right, or privilege, and of course common to 

 ail. And, although these authorities have been 

 applied on a former occasion to the right of 

 angling only, yet their general application to 

 all other fishings will hereafter appear. 



I will not go into history, either on the sub- 

 ject of fishing with nets or angling, which I 

 might easily do, but I will presume my readers 

 are fully as well, or perhaps better acquainted 

 with these authorities than myself. I will 

 only observe, that it was allowed to the clergy 

 when the more sanguinary sports, and athletic 

 exercises were forbidden ; and most historians 

 and travellers record it as the universal prac- 

 tice of all nations. But to come more near to 

 the time it is intended to establish the usage 

 and practice of it, viz. at and before the be- 

 ginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, being 

 the time the first statute now extant was made 

 on the subject of fishing. 



There is a book, (one of the most ancient 

 printed in this kingdom)* called " The Boke of 



* Printing was brought into England by William Caxton, a 

 mercer, in 1471 ; who, it is said, had a press in Westminster 

 Abbey till 1494. 



