8 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



treatise to " the ryght noble and full worthy prynce 

 the Duke of Yorke, late called Mayster of the 

 Game," and identifies the Duke of York here referred 

 to with Edmund of Langley, the fifth son of Edward 

 III., who died ist August 1402; and Mr Haslewood 

 argues, " the word late in the above passage distinctly 

 shows his name and person were recent in memory 

 in the time of our author." 



There is in existence, in the possession of Mr 

 Denison, a portion of the treatise in manuscript, 

 differing somewhat in the orthography and also 

 slightly in certain passages from the printed work. 

 Of this manuscript Mr Thomas Satchell printed and 

 published 400 copies in 1882. He says: 



That it is an independent text cannot be doubted, 

 and in this opinion we are supported by the high 

 authority of the Rev. Professor Skeat, who is inclined 

 to assign it an earlier date than 1450. Though 

 probably an older form of the treatise printed at 

 Westminster 1496, it is drawn from the same 

 original, which, where ever it first came from, was 

 at that time written in our language. The close 

 correspondence in many passages forbids the idea 

 that the two versions were independent translations 

 from another tongue. 



The authorship of the Book of St Albans, including 

 the Treatyse of ffysshynge, appears to have been 

 attributed to Dame Juliana Berners on very slender 

 evidence. At the end of that portion of the book 

 which deals with hunting, there is the following 

 colophon : " Explicit dame Julyans Bernes." Hence 



