152 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



passed through six editions, which is an incontestable 

 argument of its vast merit. But it is fit the Reader 

 should be apprized, that the sly Bookseller, the better 

 to palm his translation off on the world as an original, 

 hath transposed the initials of the true author's name ; 

 for the title page saith, by J. S. instead of S. J., 

 Soloman Jarchi. Wolfii Biblioth. Hebr. 



Beyond the above statement there do not appear 

 to be the slightest grounds for supposing that Rabbi 

 Soloman Jarchi 1 was in any way the author of 

 this book. It is perhaps possible that one or two 

 of the Choice Secrets, such as that for taking fish in 

 the hands, may have been taken indirectly from 

 some work of Soloman Jarchi's, but even this I do 

 not think is likely. The True Art of Angling, more- 

 over, is not a book which deals much with the 

 medicinal properties of river fish. 



The True Art of Angling is compiled to a certain 

 extent from previous works, but at the same time 

 it contains an appreciable amount of original matter. 

 The following passage is an almost verbatim extract 

 from Chetham's Angler's Vade-Mecum : " Cast the 

 Fly behind a Trout at his rising, and so with a gentle 

 Hand draw it over his Head, so that not scaring him, 

 he will quickly take it if it be the right colour." 

 Again the peculiar method of ground-baiting for 



1 Rabbi Soloman Ben Jarchi was born at Troyes, in Cham- 

 pagne, in the year 1040. He died in France in 1105. His 

 writings, which were very numerous, were partly elucidations 

 of the Talmud, and partly commentaries on the Old Testament 

 (Diet. Univ. Biogr^. 



