CHAPTER I. 



SPORTING LITERATURE IN FRANCE AND 

 ENGLAND. 



The sport is so royal that there is neither gentle 

 nor villein, if it knew of it and loved it well, who 

 would not be more honoured for that reason by all 

 who understand it. 



Good Sir, if all knew it, would it be less 

 honoured than it is now? 



Nay, rather it would be more honoured, fair 

 gentle friend, know it well. 



ha Chace dou Serf. 

 About 1250. 

 Translation by Sir Henry Dryden. 



)HE history of fly fishing begins at 

 the close of the fifteenth century. 

 It is true that there is one 

 isolated record long before this; 

 for the curious can carry its 

 story back to the second century 

 of our era and read in a Roman author an 

 account of fly fishing for a fish, apparently 

 the trout, in a river in Macedonia.* But, while 



*De Animalium Natura, by Claudius Aelianus, Book 15, 

 Cap I. 



