INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON ANGLING. 
Angling, from the earliest periods of the world, has been 
considered a source both of amusement and profit. Walton, 
or old Izak, as lie is more familiarly called, in his remarks on 
the Antiquity of Angling, goes back as far as the days of the 
sons of Adam, and the Book of Job, in which latter he proves 
the first mention of fish-hooks. The earliest authentic infor- 
mation, however, we have of Angling as an amusement, can 
l>e dated as far back as the days of the Romans. Trajan, the 
Roman Emperor, is mentioned as one who loved Angling, and 
also, if we may credit history, of eating the result of his days’ 
sport in epicurean style. Plutarch also speaks of Mark An- 
tony and Cleopatra as using angling as a principal recreation ! 
We know little, however, of any perfection in the art, until 
the year 1486, when a treatise on the subject was published 
by a lady, celebrated at that time for her beauty and ac- 
complishments, entitled “ The Treatyse of Fyssynge with 
an Angle, by Dame Julyana Berners, Prioress of the Nun- 
nery near St. Albans.” The book would at the present day 
be considered a curiosity, if we may judge from the follow- 
ing quaint extract, in which she shows llio superiority of 
fishing over fowling: 
“ The Angler atte the leest, hath his holsom walke, and 
mery at his ease, a swete ayro of the swete sauoure of the 
mede floures, that makyth him hungry ; he liereth the melo- 
