170 APPEN'DIX. 



wryte and make this symple treatyse folowynge, by 

 whyche ye may have the full crafte of anglynge to 

 dysport you at your luste : to the entent that your age 

 maye the more floure and the more longer to endure." 

 From the first sentence introductory to the prac- 

 tical directions, we may infer that fishing tackle 

 makers' shops were then scarce. " Yf ye woll be 

 crafty in anglynge : ye must fyrste lerne to make 

 your harnays." As this primary condition of craft 

 in angling included not only a knowledge of making 

 rods and lines, but also of making " hokes of stele 

 and of osmond, some for the dubbe and some for 

 the flote," we may perceive how much the path of 

 knowledge has since been smoothed. It would be 

 now difficult to find in the whole island, a single 

 adept in the mystery of fly-fishing who has complied 

 with the ancient rite of initiation, by making his 

 own rods, lines, and hooks. A knowledge of what 

 water to fish in, and how deep ; of the time of day 

 when ; of the fish to be angled for, and in what 

 weather ; of impediments to angling ; of baits for 

 every month, and how to find, breed, and preserve 

 them, is also required. In the directions for making 

 the rod, the writer, who evidently considers it as a 

 master-piece of its kind, very properly " begins at 

 the beginning/' " Ye shall kytte betwene Myghel- 

 mas and Candylmas a fayr statfe of a fadom and a 

 half, and arme grete, of hasyll, willow, or aspe. And 

 bethe hym in an hote ovyn and sette hym evyn. 

 Then lete hym cole and drye a moneth. Take 

 thenne and frette [wrap] hym faste wyth a cocke- 

 sliote corde [a sort of cord of which large fowling 

 nets were made] and bynde hym to a fourm or an 



