Preface. ix 



the course of a few years " plentie of all riuer fish and also a great sparing 

 of flesh." 



In another place (p. 31), where he has added a page to a chapter taken from 

 Estienne, he displays the spirit of a true sportsman, saying : "It is a good thing 

 to haue plentie of fresh water fish, in riuers and pooles, and standing waters : and 

 a great pleasure for man sometimes to take with his angle a dish of fish in those 

 waters wherein fish is plentie and well preserued, not to vse any other engins, 

 but wth the hooke : and by such meanes as the lawes of this realme doth 

 permit and allow, not to vse fire, handguns, crossebows, oyles, ointments, pouders, 

 and pellets made to cast in the waters to stonny and poyson the fish, nor yet to 

 vse all sorts of nets, and such as are deuourers of fish, as bow nets, casting nets, 

 small trammels, shoue nets, and draught nets : which are destroyors of fish before 

 they are growen to any bignesse." He proceeds to urge those taking the 

 " government " of waters, " to replenish them with all such kinde of fish as may 

 there be preserued and bred," and particularly recommends the " fenne pult," 

 that is the Eel-pout or Burbot, found in the *' fennes beside Peterborrow," as 

 furnishing a " pleasant meate," and likely to do well in rivers and running waters. 

 Yarrell, it may be observed, also thought that the Burbot has been undeservedly 

 neglected as a food fish. 



Leonard Mascall's book, it may be said in conclusion, is simply a collection 

 of practical directions for the angler and fish preserver, such as a man of his 

 time might prepare for his own use. The compiler indulges in no comments or 

 reflections, save when his indignation as a propagator and protector of fish is 

 roused by the doings of his neighbours. The passages from Estienne, some of 

 which, such as the chapter on p. 35, "of the taking of fish," are singularly out of 

 place, may have been added when the time came to him, as to other note-makers, 



b 



