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CHAPTER III. 



AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING, FROM THE 

 INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND (1474 

 A.D.) TO THE TIME OF IZAAK WALTON. 



THE first printed book connected with the literature of 

 fishing claims England as its nationality, and an English 

 lady as its author. It is known as the Book of St. 

 Albans, and was written (or perhaps it might be more 

 correct to say "edited") by Dame Juliana Berners (or 

 Barnes), or, as some call her, Dame Julyans, and even plain 

 " Mrs. Barnes," who is generally believed to have been the 

 Prioress of Sopwell, near St. Albans. Some ruins of this 

 still remain, and can easily be visited by anglers who, like 

 the writer, have the privilege of whipping the Ver, below 

 the city, whose ancient name of Fmilamium is still per- 

 petuated by this pretty trout-stream. The Book of Si. 

 Albans is supposed to have been written early in the 

 fifteenth century, but the first edition of it, which comprises 

 discourses on hawking and hunting and " other commend- 

 able treatyses," and was printed by the "schoolmaster- 

 printer" of St. Albans in 1486, contains nothing about 

 fishing. The next edition was printed by the famous 

 printer at Westminster, Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496, and in 

 this appears, as an addition to the others, a Treatyse of 

 fysshynge. Whether the good and learned Dame was an 

 angler herself, or whether she ought to receive the full 

 credit of originality for her treatise on angling (a fact which 



