ETYMOLOGY OF BAIT. 53 



ETYMOLOGY OF BAIT & ENTOMOLOGY 

 OF MAY-FLIES AND STONE-FLIES. 



BAIT. 



NOT the least important, and certainly the most 

 widely-extended subject falling under the legitimate 

 cognisance of the fisherman, is comprised in the small 

 word of four letters that heads this chapter. The whole 

 practice of "fysshinge with an angle," as Dame Juliana 

 Berners, our earliest piscatorial authoress, terms the 

 gentle art, is founded on the expressive word Bait As 

 well might we go to the mart without money, to the 

 camp without courage, to the court without courtesy, as 

 to lake or river without bait. He who might be simple 

 enough to do so would truly " be in very like case to 

 the gentleman angler, that goeth to the river for his 

 pleasure, and returneth home lightly laden at his 

 leisure," as so described. by Mr. Thomas Barker in 

 his fishing treatise entitled The Delight, published 

 more than two hundred years ago. At Banco Eecjis 

 a man may, it is said, sue in forma pauperis, but it 

 is utterly useless to go empty-handed to the bank of 



