ZTbe jfatbers of angling 5 



at Oxford. The Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne and 

 Mr. Carew Hazlitt have both published the poem in 

 collections of Early English metrical romances, but 

 neither of them has attempted to throw any light 

 on the authorship or commented on the remarkable 

 circumstance that this is the first detailed and elaborate 

 allusion to the art of angling in the language. Whoever 

 Piers of Fulham may have been, and whatever he may 

 mean by calling himself "an usher of Venus School," 

 I confidently claim him as a genuine "brother of the 

 angle." 



But though Piers of Fulham is credited with the 

 first English work on angling which can be dignified 

 with the name of a treatise, he was not the earliest 

 writer to mention fishing. Professor Skeat says the 

 oldest notice of fishing in the English language is the 

 passage in " ^Ifric's Colloquy," where fishing is referred 

 to as a craft. It is contained in the Cotton MS. Tiberius, 

 A 3. The colloquy is written in Latin, with an inter- 

 linear English (Anglo-Saxon) translation ; and was 

 intended to help scholars in acquiring some knowledge 

 of Latin. For this purpose it takes the form of a 

 discourse between a master and his pupils. One of 

 these is a young fisherman, and the conversation between 

 the master and this pupil is to thejbllowing effect, M. 

 standing for Master, and P. (Piscator) for Fisher-boy : 



" M. What craft do you exercise ? P. I am a fisher. 



M. What do you get by your craft? P. Victuals, 

 clothes, and money. 



M. How do you catch fish? P. I get into my 

 boat and cast my nets into the river, and throw out 



