io lifnas of tbe TCofc, IRffle, ant> 6un 



whenever fish were wanted, and it is absurd to suppose 

 that the prioress and her nuns sat down with rod and 

 line to angle for the fare to supply their table on 

 fast-days. It would have been a poor look-out for the 

 unfortunate sisters if they had had to depend upon 

 angling for their regular supply of fish. 



The writer of the " Treatyse " was an expert, practical 

 angler who knew what a good rod was and how to 

 make it Indeed, good Master Izaak, finding that 

 the directions for making rods, lines, hooks, and floats 

 given by this author could not be improved upon, 

 calmly appropriated them without acknowledgment and 

 gave them to the world as his own ! 



It is in this "Treatyse" that there occurs the first 

 mention of fly-fishing, with minute instructions as to 

 the flies effective for each month. " There be xii 

 flyes wyth whyche ye shall angle to y e trought [trout] 

 and graylling and dubbe, lyke as ye shall now here 

 me tell." And then follows the list, among which 

 figures the "Red Hackle," the oldest known artificial 

 lure. It is odd to read of the salmon : " You may also 

 take him with a fly in lyke forme and manner as ye 

 do a trought or graylling, but it is seldom scene." 



Whoever the author of the " Treatyse on Fysshinge " 

 may have been, he gave the text on which all angling 

 writers have preached ever since with monotonous 

 repetition. Take this passage from the exordium of 

 the " Treatyse " : 



" Thus me semyth that huntynge, and hawkynge and 

 also fowlynge ben so laborous and grevous that none of 

 theym maye perfourme nor bi very meane that induce a 



