2 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



history of angling. Our business lies with the present, and 

 with a very brief notice we shall dismiss the past. 



One of the first treatises in the English language on angling 

 is that of Dame Juliana Berners, or Barnes, in the Book of 

 St. Albans. It is entitled The Art of Fysshynge with an Angle, 

 and was published in 1496. There were other authors who 

 added to the stock of angling literature, but the next one of 

 note was the well-known Izaak Walton, who wrote The Con- 

 templative Man's Recreation, and first published it in 1653, and 

 in fifteen years it ran through five editions. Since then, with 

 the additions by Cotton and Venables, the book has run through 

 an extraordinary number of editions.* 



From that time down to the present the number of writers 

 upon angling matters has abounded beyond measure, and the 

 literature of angling is one of the richest branches of literature 

 we have. As the writers have increased, each one adding his 

 particular notion or two to the common stock, so has the art 

 progressed towards perfection, and, long ere this, fish would 

 have become extinct, but that nature has wisely ordained that, 

 as the fishermen become learned in their art, the fish shall 

 become learned also, and thus hickory and horsehair, gut and 

 steel, are robbed of a portion of their destructiveness ; and 

 although our dear old friend and father Izaak no doubt would 

 form a most agreeable fishing companion, we question, if he 

 revisited the scenes of his former exploits, with the same tackle 

 he used then, whether he would not find rather more difficulty 

 in " pleasuring some poor body " with the contents of his creel 

 than he was wont to do. 



The art of angling, as pursued in the present day, must be 

 divided into three branches Bottom, Mid-water, and Top or 

 Surface-fishing. The first comprehends bait and float-fishing of 

 every kind ; the second spinning, trolling, and live-baiting, 

 and the last, daping and fishing with the artificial fly. As the 

 first has by far the greater number of followers, owing to the 

 greater facilities offered for its pursuit, we shall commence 

 with that. 



BOTTOM-FISHING may be subdivided into still-water and 

 stream-fishing. Still-water is usually the first essay of the 

 tyro, and with that we shall commence our instructions. 



* Richard Franck (1624-1708), a jealous rival of Walton, a better naturalist 

 and fly-fisher, wrote his Northern Memoirs in 1658, but did not find a pub- 

 lisher till 1694. Those who can put up with absurdly euphuistic phrasing 

 will find it a singularly interesting treatise on angling for salmon and trout. 

 It was reprinted in 1821, with an introduction by Sir Walter Scott. ED. 



