XIV LIFE OF WALTON. 



quaintness as antiquity, and because it is not a little characteristic of 

 the age when it was written, deserves to be particularly distinguished. 

 This tract, intitled, The Treatyse of Fysshynge iryth an Angte, makes 

 part of a book, like many others of that early time, without a title ; 

 but which, by the colophon, appears to have been printed at West- 

 minster, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1496, in a small folio, containing a 

 treatise on hawking; another, on hunting, in verse, the latter 

 taken, as it seems, from a Tract, on that subject, written by old Sir 

 Tristram, an ancient forester, cited in the Forest Laws of Manwood, 

 chap. iv. in sundry places; a book wherein is determined the Lyg- 

 nage of Cote Armures; the above-mentioned treatise of fishings and 

 the method of Blasynge of Armes. 



The book printed by Wynkyn de Worde is, in truth, a re-publica- 

 tion of one known, to the curious, by the name of the " Book of St. 

 Alban's," it appearing by the colophon to have been printed there, in 

 1486, and, as it seems, with Caxton's letter, i Wynkyn de Worde's 

 impression has the addition of the treatise of fishing; of which only 

 it concerns us to speak. 



The several tracts contained in the above-mentioned two impres- 

 sions of the same book, were compiled by Dame Julyans (or .Juliana) 

 Berners, Bernes, or Barnes; prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, near 

 St. Alban's; a lady of a noble family and celebrated, for her learn- 

 ing and accomplishments, by Leland, Bale, Pits, bishop Tanner, and 

 others. And the. reason for her publishing it, in the manner it ap- 

 pears in, she gives us in the following words : And for by cause that 

 this present treaty se sholde not come to the hondys of eche ydle per- 

 one vhyche volde desire it,yfit vcere enprynted a/lone by itself and 

 put in a tytyU plaunftet ; therefore I hare compylyd it in a greter 

 volume, of dyuerte bokys concemynge to gentyU and noble men, to 

 the entent that the forsayd ydle persones tchyche sholde hatu hut 

 lytyll mesure m the *ayd dysporte offysshynge, shofde not by this 

 meane utterly dystroye it. 



And as to the treatise itself, it must be deemed a great typographi- 

 cal curiosity, as well for the wooden sculpture which in the original 

 immediately follows the title, as for the orthography and the charac- 

 ter in which it is printed. And, with respect to the subject matter 

 thereof, it begins With a comparison of fishing with the diversions 

 of hunting, hawking, and fowling, which, the authoress shews, are 

 attended with great inconveniences and disappointments ; whereas in 

 fishing, if his sport fail him, the Angler, says she, atte the leest, hath 

 his holsom tealke, and mery at his ease, a svete ayre of the stcete 

 sauoure of the meed e flour es, thatmakyth him /nnif/ry ; hehereth the 

 metodyou* armony offoiclet; he seeth the yonge su-annes, heerons, 



his book was originally in rhyme. Of Markhatn's book, a specimen is 

 given in a note on page 20. 



Barker 1 ! Art of jingling, printed in 12mo. in 1651, and again in4to. in 1653. 

 A third edition was published in 1659, under the title of Barker's Delight, 

 9r the Art of Angling. For an Account of this book and its Author, vide. 

 infra. J. 8. H. 



(l) Vide Biographia Britannica, Art. CAXTON, note L. wherein the 

 author, Mr. Oldys, has Riven a copious account of the book, and a cha- 

 racter of the lady who compiled it. 



