36 DOWN THE BECK 



is a curious commentary on the aristocratic princi- 

 ples of the fifteenth century to find Dame Berners, 

 in the aforementioned "Treatyse," confining the sport 

 to the well-born. She could not imagine it a re- 

 creation of the multitude, or even of " ydle persones." 

 With her it is emphatically " one of the dysportes 

 that gentylmen use." Her enthusiasm for the sport 

 knows no bounds, and must have made many genera- 

 tions of Englishmen anglers. The treatise evidently 

 supplied the idea of " Walton's Angler," the book 

 which next to "White's Selborne," has gone through 

 more editions than any other secular work in the 

 language. " It shall be to you a very pleasure to se 

 the fayr bryght shynynge scalyd fysshes dysceyved 

 by your crafty meanes, and clrawen upon lande," 

 she says ; but, either fishermen have become less 

 skilful since her clays, or trout more timorous, if 

 we may judge from her wonderful frontispiece of a 

 man angling (and that successfully) with a rod like 

 a flail, and tackle resembling the trace of a carriage. 

 Neither the salmon, monarch of the salmonidse, 

 nor the lovely grayling, which is only found in 

 midland and Welsh waters, is to be expected in 

 the Beck. Still the common river trout is no 

 mean antagonist for an angler's mettle. Of all 

 fish trout are most vigilant and suspicious ; the 

 least unwary movement, adventuring even a hand 



