72 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



passage, which renders so early an origin an 

 impossibility: "Read some of these in a curious 

 Book lately printed called the Anglers Sure Guide. 

 Sold at the Ring in Little Brittain." The book here 

 referred to was the Anglers Sure Guide, by R. H., 

 printed in 1706 by G. Conyers, at the Ring in Little 

 Brittain. 



The Bibliotheca Piscatoria mentions an edition of 

 The Sportsman's Instructor in 1652, of a similar size, 

 and with the same number of pages. I have not been 

 able to find any other evidence of the existence of 

 such an edition, and there is no entry of it in the 

 Registers of Stationers' Hall. 



The size of this diminutive work was 2f by \\ 

 inches ; Mr Pearson in his reprint makes it consider- 

 ably smaller, viz., if by if inch. 



From the passage quoted above it would seem that 

 The Young Sportsman's Instructor was published about 

 1706 or 1707 (seventy years after Markham's death). 

 Unfortunately at this period there is a hiatus in the 

 records of Stationers' Hall, the Licensing Act of 

 Charles II. having expired and that of Anne not 

 having been passed until 1710, so no confirmation on 

 this point can be obtained from that useful and 

 reliable source. 



The Young Sportsman's Instructor will be dealt with 

 in a later chapter : here it is sufficient to state that 

 it differs from Markham's books in containing no 

 references to the angler's many virtues, upon which 

 Markham was so fond of dilating, but giving instead 



