PREFACE. ix 



It will be seen that several works of marked interest and 

 importance are now registered for the first time the rare 

 Flemish Tract, for instance, on Fowling and Fishing, ( in the 

 Denison collection) which is a competitor, for priority, with our 

 own " Treatyse of Fysshynge ; " the poem of Richard de 

 Fournival ( l< La vieille, ou les derniers amours d'Ovide " ) 

 belonging, probably, to a yet earlier epoch the Ode of Mr. 

 Thomas Herrick, author of " Miscellany Poems " and others. 

 Amongst the novel features of our list we have also to call 

 attenii-'Ti . > ti 1 " very many early German works now registered 

 for the firs time. We have been able to include, among angling 

 wr: , Wmiam Browne, of u Britannia's Pastorals," Jacob Cats, 

 Mk, . D ,v ion, the unknown author of the "Dialogues of 

 Creatures moralized," Erasmus, Isachius and Sir Philip Sidney 

 and among the moderns, Walter Savage Landor. Thus we 

 have cast our net with a wider sweep than heretofore may our 

 readers be satisfied with the draught we have brought to shore ! 



The editions of Walton and Cotton, which in the pages of 

 " The chronicle of the compleat angler," stood at fifty-three, 

 have now reached the imposing total of ninty ; twenty-one 

 having been issued since the date (1864) of that work, and sixteen 

 having escaped notice on that occasion. If the venerable 

 shade of the Father of anglers could be conjured up from 

 his Elysium ( fishy be the streams there and the wind due 

 South for ever ! ) and revisit the light of day, how amazed 

 would he be (simple soul ! ) at the perpetuation and extension of 

 his fame and at the goodly bulk of our ' Bibliotheca ' he that 

 counted fishing books by twos and threes ! One thing is forced 

 upon our conviction in this matter that angling has become a 

 force in literature, greater far than that of its kindred sports. In 

 a battle of books Auceps and Venator would have to retire, 

 worsted in the contest, leaving Piscator dominant. To him who 

 doubts this we say -cross our threshold and...' circumspice.' 



The Fisheries and Pisciculture having become important 

 and special departments, we have judged it expedient to class 

 them apart. In our register of Fishery pamphlets we have 

 restricted ourselves to English and Colonial publications, and 

 we have included with these an extensive list of Papers pre- 

 sented to both Houses of Parliament, which contain much 

 important matter respecting the condition of the fisheries in 

 past times, and the efforts made for their encouragement and for 

 the amelioration of the condition of those engaged in them. 

 These papers consist of Petitions, Statistical returns, Reports of 

 Committees and Bills. The last in many, or most instances, 

 became Acts of Parliament, after alterations which it is some- 

 times of special interest to note ; but some never passed beyond 



