The Winter Angler 185 



" Even Dame Juliana did not claim to be the 

 author of her work. She says ' I have compylyd 

 it.' How admirable this is, as in it is the soul 

 of all fish stories of to-day, as each story teller 

 doubtless ' compylyd it.' Whether Dame Juliana 

 compiled it, or invented it, no one knows or 

 cares, but every angler since has been indebted 

 to her, and Walton with his delightful philosophy 

 absorbed much of her wisdom. She described 

 the first flies, although I have in mind ^Elian's 

 famous description of the fly of the Macedonian 

 in his De Animalium Natura and that they have 

 been used for ages there is little doubt. She 

 gives descriptions of them by the month and 

 they are the types of standard flies to-day in 

 many cases." 



" If Juliana really compiled her book, it would 

 be most interesting to know from whom she com- 

 piled," said an angler from the French Broad 

 country who had been watching the fire and see- 

 ing cool purling streams in the burning wood. 

 " To me the interesting thing in her famous 

 treatise is its philanthropy, its high standard, 

 the good doctrine it teaches, and I consider it 

 remarkable that this work, written over four 

 hundred years ago, should contain the ethics, the 

 principles of what gentlemen of to-day consider 

 the standards of sport. The old treatise is an 

 angling idyl, and that it has had a strong in- 

 fluence on men and women in the past in formu- 



