FROM TREATISE TO COMPLEAT ANGLER. 37 



barren in this century and a half. The demand 

 for the Treatise shows that fishing was a 

 popular sport, and fly fishing in particular 

 marked some progress. Its story centres in 

 the names of three writers, Leonard Mascall, 

 William Lawson and Gervase Markham. 



A Booke of fishing with Hooke & Line by 

 Leonard Mascall appeared in 1590, the year 

 which saw the publication of the Faerie Queen, 

 and the year before the production of Love's 

 Labour's Lost, the first play which can with 

 certainty be assigned to Shakespeare. It ran 

 rapidly through four editions. Mascall was a 

 diversified writer and produced a well known 

 book on grafting fruit trees; he also wrote on 

 trapping vermin, on poultry, hygiene, cattle 

 and horses, and on removing stains from silk 

 and velvet. The Book of Fishing is a mixture 

 of odds and ends of information about fishing 

 and fish preservation collected from many 

 sources. It falls roughly into two parts. The 

 more important deals with fish culture, of 

 which MascaU was a pioneer, and is original 

 and valuable, and pf itself gives Mascall a 

 high place. The other part, directly concerned 

 with fishing, is not original, for it is largely 

 copied from the Treatise and other sources, 

 and, moreover, not only is it copied, but there 

 are numerous silly mistakes in the copying. 

 But, for all that, to fishing in general and fly 

 fishing in particular Mascall made a certain 

 contribution. Flies, he says, are to be used on 



