THE OLDEST BOOK ON FISHING 225 



on fishing, and he is careful to state in his 

 commentary on this part of the volume (^Introduc- 

 tion, p. 60) that " neither for Juliana Barnes, 

 the monkish schoolmaster, nor anyone who assisted 

 in compiling the original Book of St Albans, can 

 there be consistently advanced a claim of author- 

 ship in this 'little pamphlet.'" The last two words 

 have reference to Wynkyn de Worde's own 

 explanation of the reasons which prompted him to 

 add it for the first time to the treatises previously 

 printed. He says : — 



"And for by cause (i.e., in order) that this 

 present treatyse sholde not come to the hondys of 

 eche ydle persone whyche wolde desire it yf it were 

 enpryntyd allone by itself and put in a lytyll 

 plaunflet, therefore I have compylyd it in a greter 

 volume of dyverse bokys ... to the entent that 

 the forsayd ydle persones [who may care nothing 

 for fishing] sholde not by this meanes utterly 

 dystroye it." 



The wisdom of such a course is now fully 

 apparent, and has proved a lasting boon to 

 anglers. 



With regard to the authorship of the Fishing, 

 we learn from some remarks under the head of 

 "Carp" that it was a compilation partly from oral 

 instruction, partly from " bokes of credence " — that 

 is, from earlier manuscripts. The writer tells us 

 that he was "loth to wryte more than I knowe and 

 have provyd. But well I wote that the redde 

 worme and the menow ben good baytys for him 

 (^i.e., the carp) at all tymes, as I have herde saye 



