AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 563 



of Mr. Carnal and Mrs. Lent, in 1350, fish and beasts being 

 represented in an internecine contest, which resulted in the 

 victory of the former. But this is hardly to our purpose. 

 A recent writer on angling literature states that the oldest 

 English treatise on fishery is contained in the Colloquy of 

 the Saxon yElfric ; but it is valueless as far as matter is 

 concerned, though the list of both salt and fresh water fish 

 is interesting. A record of the different modes of fishing 

 with worm, fly, torch and spear, night lines, &c., is to be 

 found in Richard de Fournival's Latin poem, De Vitula, 

 supposed to have been written in the thirteenth or fourteenth 

 century. It existed only in manuscript until 1861, when it 

 was printed by Aubry. A most interesting old English 

 poem by Piers of Fulham, supposed to have been written 

 about the year 1420, contains some very quaint notices 

 about fish and their capture. It is entitled " Vayne conseytes 

 of folysche love undyr colour of fyscheng and fowlyng? 

 Three or more manuscripts of this poem are in existence. 

 It opens thus in the version given by Blakey : 



" A man thath lovith ffisshyng and ffowlyng bothe, 

 Ofte tyme that lyff shall hym be lothe, 

 In see in ryver in ponde or in poole, 

 Off that crafte thowe he knowe the scole, 

 Thought his nett never so wide streiche, 

 It happith full ofte hym naught to ketche." 



The author was evidently a good sportsman as times 

 went, and preferred running to stagnant waters, though in 

 the former he does not intend to stick to entirely legitimate 

 angling. He delivers himself on this wise : 



" But in rennyng ryvers that bee commone, 

 There will I fisshe and taake my fortune 

 Wyth nettys, and with angle hookys, 

 And laye weris, and spenteris in narrowe brookys." 



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