71 PREFACE. 



instances and the omitted letters given in italic. 

 The thorn letter ]>, and middle English 5, have 

 been used whenever they occur. Only the final 

 c when (possibly) expressed by a curve in the tail 

 of the pieceding letter, has been always ignored. 

 When we found that the Latin words labor 

 and stirgere were written with the same twist 

 over the top of the r, in one case meaning e and 

 in the other meaning nothing, we abandoned 

 the attempt to distinguish between the writer's 

 flourishes of design and his flourishes of caprice. 

 The distinct sound of the final e had passed out 

 of use when the manuscript was written. The 

 curve may be held in the light of a survival, and 

 though the writer may have intended to add e 

 to 'or' and 'mor,'&c, the letter in that position 

 had then no more phonetic value than it has now. 

 That more than one treatise on fishing was 

 in existence at the time the present one was 

 written, and that these were of foreign origin, 

 may be inferred from the remarks of the writer 

 when treating of the Carp, of which " there ben 

 but fewe in Engiande." He, or she (assuming a 

 Dame Juliana) proceeds : " therefore I wryte the 

 lasse of hym. . . As touchynge his baytes I 



