SALMON FISHING IK ENGLAND 



at least two centuries, as Walton says, ' Yet sometimes he 

 wiU, and not usually at a fly,' And when he refers to salmon 

 tackle, ' Note also that many used to fish for salmon with a 

 ring of wire on the top of their rod ; through which the line may 

 run to as great a length as is needful, when he is hooked. And 

 to that end some use a wheel about the middle of their rod, or 

 near their hand.' This was in 1670 or thereabouts. But 

 Walton doubtless borrowed his information regarding flies 

 from Juliana Berners, who compiled or wrote a treatise on fishing, 

 which was published by Wynken de Worde in The Booke of St. 

 Albans, in 1486, over four hundred years ago. Eeferring to the 

 salmon she says, ' You may also take him with a fly in like 

 form and manner as you do a trout or grayling,' adding, ' but it 

 is seldom seen.' 



No one can read the list of Juliana Berners' flies and not be 

 impressed with the belief that flies were known and used for 

 salmon years, yes, ages before, for as E. B. Marston says in his 

 delightful Early Fishing Notes, 'Nothing but gradual evolution 

 extending perhaps over centuries could account for this list. 

 It is not necessary to quote Juliana Berners further, but her 

 treatise on angling is yet the soul of the modern high standard 

 in angling in England and America. This refers particularly 

 to the angler and should be framed and hung in every club in 

 the world : 



' Also ye shall not be to ravenous in takyng of your sayd game, as to moche 

 at one tyme, which ye maye lyghtly doo yf ye doo in every poynt as this 

 present treatyse shewyth you on every poynt. . . . Also ye shall besye your- 

 self e to nouryssh the game.' 



It does not require much imagination to see the good Prioress 

 of SopweU — Juliana — sending on Thursday to some monastery, 

 stationed, as the missions of CaUfornia were, on or near a trout 

 stream, a demand for salmon, at which we can imagine the monks, 

 all anglers, waMng down to the river to catch the fish. An 

 ancient canticle, handed down from the time, teUs the story : — 



3 



