Great Britain Freshwater Fishing. 49 



FRESHWATER FISHING. 



THE origin of the art of angling is lost in the mist of ages. There is ample testimony to 

 show that even fly-fishing with an imitation of the natural fly was practised more than 2000 

 years ago. JElian mentions the fact, and accurately describes the trout in the river Astreus 

 taking a natural fly called Hippurus, and, how the natives of Macedonia constructed an 

 imitation with a body of purple wool and with " wings of a waxy colour," which they dropped 

 down the stream and which was seized by the fish. But the art of angling was far older than 

 this, as the carvings on ancient Egyptian monuments amply testify. The Chinese and Japanese 

 have been anglers for ages. The artificial flies of the Japanese would attract the curious 

 attention of British anglers in the present day. The first author of whom we have any note 

 in this country, who described "the art of Fyshynge with an Angle," was Dame Juliana 

 Berners, Prioress of Sopwell nunnery in Hertfordshire, who wrote and published the Book of 

 St. Albans in 1486. The first edition, printed by the schoolmaster printer of St. Albans, did 

 not contain the treatise on angling, but the second, " Enprynted at Westmestre by Wynkyn 

 the Worde in the yere of thyncarnacon of our] lorde mcccclxxxxvi " contained the treatise of 

 fishing. Angling in those days was by no means so common a practice as it is now, as may 

 be gathered from the reason given by the worthy prioress for including this pamphlet in the 

 much larger publication, as she puts it, * bycause that this preseant treatyse sholde not come 

 to the handys of echo ydle persone whyche wolde desire it yf it were enprynted allonej by 

 itself and put in a lytyle plaunflett, therefore I have compylyd it in a greter volume of dyverse 

 bokys concernynge to gentyll and noble men to the entent that the forsayd ydle persones 

 whyche sholde have* but lytyle mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshing sholde not by this 

 meane utterly dystroye it." Probably for this reason the number of authors who followed 

 Dame Juliana for the next 200 years or so were very limited. In 1653 Isaak Walton wrote 

 his delightful pastoral, which even at the present day is devoured with pleasure not only by 

 anglers but by all lovers of country life and scenes. For another 200 years or so the 

 number of works on angling came out but slowly, though far more rapidly than in the previous 

 time. In 1811 one of the best known lists of angling works was published by G. W. H. Ellis; 

 it numbered 80 works. Since then, however, the increase has been most rapid, and during 

 the last 15 or 20 years work after work has poured out of the press until in the present year 

 of 1883 we read in the new edition of the Bibliotheca Piscatoria, published by Messrs. 

 Westwood and Satchell lately, that no less than 3158 editions and reprints of 2148 distinct 

 works are given and described in their catalogue. Tackle in the far-off times was of the 

 rudest, a taper reed for a rod, some twisted horsehairs for a line, and a hook more remarkable 

 for power than finish, which is not surprising when we find that amateur hook-making was 

 generally practised in those days. And even in books not much more than 100 years old, minute 

 directions were given as to the manufacture of hooks. But the increase of the literature is 

 symptomatic of the increase in the practice of angling, and if the noble and gentle Dame Juliana 

 could only come out of Sopwell Priory to the not far distant banks of the Lea and see the 

 class of people who throng its banks on any and every holiday to indulge in the gentle 

 " dysporte of fysshynge with an angle," she would indeed be filled with amazement. For the 

 sport of angling is now not only the sport of the select few, but of the many ; it is a benefi- 

 cent, health-giving pursuit, good both for the body and mind of the toiling thousands or even 

 millions who throng the back streets of our larger cities, and who have no other inducement to 

 leave their unhealthy habitations for the fresh air of the country. From this point of view 

 (and it is a national point) the art ^of angling is a powerful lever for good if properly worked 

 and exercised. Fifty years ago the London angler was derided as the Cockney fisherman, and 

 jokes innumerable were cut upon his skill, his rod and his tackle ; all this is changed, the 

 fishermen and the tackle now sent forth from the great Metropolis are alike of the first excel- 

 lence. Yearly, at the annual holiday, mighty fishers peers, members of Parliament, profes- 

 sional men, hard worked men of business, rush off to Norway or Canada, the Highlands of 

 Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and by the banks of murmuring stream or thundering torrent 

 recuperate brain, muscle and nerve power, in the absorbing pursuit after trout or salmon, 

 returning after a six weeks' interregnum renewed and invigorated, and prepared to encounter 

 anew the toil and exigencies of modern life and labours. That all the items required for 



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