INTRODUCTION 



Fishes are the oldest of the vertebrate 

 animals, the first to be evolved in the scheme 

 of creation; and Angling is as old as the 

 eternal hills. The fish-hook is mentioned in 

 several books of the Old Testament, and 

 fish-hooks of bone, shell, stone, and bronze 

 are found in the deposits of prehistoric ages. 



The first book on Angling was written by 

 an English woman of noble birth, Dame 

 Juliana Berners, whose father was beheaded 

 in 1388. She was Prioress of Sopwell Nun- 

 nery, near St. Albans, England. She was 

 author of treatises on Hunting, Hawking, 

 and Angling. The latter treatise was en- 

 titled "Fisshynge With An Angle/' and was 

 printed, a folio edition, in London, in 1496. 

 This, it will be remembered, is more than 

 four hundred years ago, and a dozen genera- 

 tions of Anglers have since risen up to call 

 her blessed. 



In her treatise on Angling she gave ex- 

 plicit directions for making rods, lines, hooks, 

 sinkers, and floats, and gave the formulas 



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