ZTbe ffatbers of 



man to a mery spyryte : whychc is cause of his longe lyfc 

 acordynge unto y sayd parable of Salamon. Dowtelcs 

 thence folowyth it that it must nedes be the dysporte of 

 fysshynge wyth an angle. For all other manere of 

 fysshynge is also laborous and grevous : often makynge 

 folks ful wete and colde, whych many tymes hath be 

 seen cause of grete Infirmytees. But the angler may 

 have no cold nor no dysease nor angrc, but yf he be 

 causer hymself. For he maye not lese at the moost but 

 a lyne or an hoke ; of whiche he may have store plenty 

 of hys own makynge, as this symple treatyse shall teche 

 hym. Soo thenne hys losse is not grevous, and other 

 greyffes may he not have savynge but yf ony fisshe 

 breke away after that hee is taken on the hoke ; or elles 

 that he catche nought : whyche ben not grevous. For 

 yf hee fayle of one he may not fay lie of a nother, yf he 

 doo'th as thys treatyse teechyth ; but yf there be 

 nought in the water. And yette atte the leest he hath 

 hys holsom walk and mery at his ease ; a swete aire of 

 the swete savoure of the meede floures, that makyth hym 

 hongry. He hereth the melodyous armony of foules. 

 He seeth the yonge swannes ; heerons : duckes : cotes 

 and many other foules wyth their brodes, whyche me 

 semyth better than alle the noyse of honndys : the 

 blastes of hornys and the scrye of foulis that hunters 

 fawkeners and fowlers can make. 



And yf the angler take fysshe : surely thenne is 

 there is noo man merier thanne he is in his spyryte." 



Robert Burton, in that wonderful medley of erudition 

 and philosophy, " The Anatomic of Melancholic," gives 

 angling as one of the cures for " moody vapours and 



