THE OLDEST BOOK ON FISHING 



Whatever branch of field sports may be to a 

 man's liking, its early history, if he be also of a 

 literary turn, should be a curious subject for 

 inquiry. It is always interesting to ascertain the 

 origin of any method which experience has shown 

 to be successful, and to discover, if possible, the 

 earliest writer who thought he knew enough of 

 his subject to attempt to instruct others. For the 

 earliest treatise on hunting in England we have to 

 go back to the time of Edward II., to a little tract 

 in Norman French, composed, about 1320, by the 

 King's huntsman, Guillaume Twici, for the purpose 

 (as he tells us) of teaching others what he himself 

 had learnt in his time. The art of falconry found 

 exponents long before that date. The troubadour 

 Deudes de Prades, in a French poem composed 

 about the end of the twelfth century, refers to a 

 treatise on hawking by Henry I., surnamed Beau- 

 clerc (a.d. i ioo-i 135). And in another poem on the 

 same subject in Norman French, which, according 

 to Sir Henry Ellis, was written in the Abbey of 

 Reading about the year 1240, the author states 

 that he took his matter from a book made for or 

 by the good King Edward — that is, Edward the 



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