THE LITERATURE OJ? FISHING. 33 



book by Dame Juliana Berners, afterwards known as the 

 Boohe of St. Albans, in which the good and accomplished 

 Prioress of Sopwell, near St. Alban's, discourses on "the 

 dysporte of fysshyng." This book was first published 

 in 1486 a.d., and contained " treatises " or chapters on 

 hunting, hawking, horses, and coat-armour, and incor- 

 porated with them one on fishing, thus introduced, — 

 "Here begynnyth the treatyse of fysshynge wyth an 

 Angle." Whether Dame Juliana Berners was a lady 

 angler herself does not appear, but that she held the art 

 in high estimation and wished others equally to respect it 

 is seen from the following paragraph appended to her 

 discourse : — ■ 



'• And for by cause that this present treatyse sholde not come to the 

 hondys of eche ydle persone, whyche wolde desire it yf it were em- 

 prynted allone by itself, and put in a lytyll plaunflet ; therfore I haue 

 compylyd it in a greter volume of dyuerse bokys eoncernynge to gentyll 

 and noble men. To the intent that the forsayd ydle persones whyche 

 scholde haue but lytyll mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshyng 

 sholde not by this meane vtterly dystroye it." 



On the last leaf of this book appears the device of 

 Wynken de Worde, and on the reverse that of Caxton ; 

 but this leaf is wanting in the copy in the British 

 Museum. 



But the good Prioress herself, or some one with her 

 consent, or without it, (for perhaps the law of copyright 

 was as imperfect then as now,) a few years after the publi- 

 cation of her larger work republished the Treatyse of 

 Fysshynge wyth an Angle in a separate form, and after this 

 several editions (eleven in all, as far as I can make out, 

 and all in small 8vo) were published with the treatises on 

 hawking, hunting, and fishing combined, "with all the 



