192 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



The Angler's Song to the tune of " A Begging we 

 will Go," is given, followed by the Laws of Angling, 

 which include the following rather extreme one : 



No Servant shall be questioned for killing a 

 Trespasser, within his master's liberty, who will not 

 yield, if not done out of former malice : yet if the 

 Trespasser kill any such servant it is murder. 21 E. 



is- 1 



The appendix to this book is perhaps its most 

 interesting portion, as it appears to be the first 

 treatise written upon rock and sea fishing. In the 

 introduction the author states that " Rock- Fishing 

 has a double Advantage, which Angling cannot 

 pretend to ; it is much pleasanter and more health- 

 ful." For the rock fisherman is able to protect him- 

 self from the heat of the sun by sitting under the 

 canopy of a rock, and he has besides the " Advantage 

 of the circumambient Air of both Land and Sea." 

 Stronger tackle must be used in this branch of the 

 sport ; the line ought at least to have five or six hairs 

 in every link. 



1 It is perhaps unnecessary to state that such a law as this 

 was never passed. No parliament was sitting in the twenty-first 

 year of the reign of Elizabeth, so no Acts could then have been 

 passed. In the fifth year of the reign of Elizabeth, there was 

 passed, " Cap xxi. An Act for punishing of unlawful taking of 

 fish, deer, and hawks." The penalty herein enacted for these 

 offences, was imprisonment for three months, damages to the 

 person injured, and the finding of sureties " for good bearing " 

 for the space of seven years. This was undoubtedly the Act 

 referred to in the Gentleman Angler (See The Anglers Note 

 3 ist March 1880, p. 97). 



