Marcu 17, 1906.] 


FOR Est eAND STREAM. 

THE FIDDLER CRABS WILL FIDDLE. 
great learning, and is reported to have held the 
office of prioress of the Benedictine Nunnery 
of Sopwell in Hertfordshire, a cell to the Abbey 
of St. Alban, but of this no documentary evi- 
dence exists. The first edition of her “Book of 
St. Alban’s,” printed by the schoolmaster- 
printer of St. Alban’s in 1486, treats of hawking, 
hunting and coat-armour. In the next edition, 
“Enprynted at Westmestre by Wynkynthe Worde 
the yere of thyncarnacon of our _lorde. 
M.CCCC.Ixxxxvi,” among the other “‘treatyses 
perteynynge to hawkynge & huntynge with other 
dyures playsaunt materes belongynge vnto 
noblesse,” appeared the present treatise on 
angling. 
- An edition of it as a distinct treatise appears 
to have been issued by Wynkyn de Worde soon 
after that of 1496, with the title, “Here be- 
gynnyth a treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle” 
over the curious woodcut of the man fishing 
which is on the first page of the present fac- 
simile, but only one copy of it is known to be in 
existence. 
before the year 1600. This shows the great 
popularity of the book at the time of its publi- 
cation, and considering how human nature re- 
mains the same, and the charms of angling are 
equally grateful to every fresh generation of 
anglers, affords a sufficient reason for the strong 
antiquarian delight which all literary anglers of 
the present century have felt in the book. 
After the eloquent pleading for angling with 
which the treatise opens, the lady at once pro- 
ceeds to teach the making of the “harnays” of 
it. The rod she orders to be constructed some- 
what resembles, save in its larger size, the 
modern walking-stick rod. A hazel wand, or 
failing it, one of willow or mountain ash, is to 
be procured, as thick as the arm and nine feet 
in length. This is to form the butt, and it is 
to be hollowed out by means of divers red-hot 
irons into a tapering hole, which is to receive 
the ‘“‘croppe,” or top, as we now call it, when 
not in use. This “croppe” is to be made of a 
yard of hazel, joined to a length of blackthorn, 
crab, medlar, or “‘jenypre.” All these are to be 
cut between Michaelmas and Candlemas, the 
lady giving very particular directions as to their 
drying and the like. When the two portions of 
the “crop” are “fretted together,’ the whole 
rod is to be shaved into a shapely taper form; 
the staff encircled with long hoops of iron or 
latten at both ends, and finished with a “pyke in 
the nether ende fastnyd wyth a rennynge vyce: 
At least ten more editions appeared 
to take in and oute youre croppe.” The line 
is then to be wound round the crop and tied 
fast with a bow at the top. The reader will 
note that there is no mention of a reel; it was 
only used, seemingly until the beginning of this 
century, for large salmon and pike. An angler 
who hooked a fish when armed with this 
ponderous rod (which must from its description 
have been nearly eighteen feet long, as large 
as a modern salmon rod), would act as Izaak 
Walton would have done in the like predica- 
ment—throw the rod in to the fish and recover 
it when he could. But the lady is wonderfully 
pleased with this mighty rod, and thus concludes 
-——“Thus shall ye make you a rodde soo preuy 
that ye maye walke therwyth: and there shall 
noo man wyte where abowte ye goo. It woll be 
lyghte & full nymbyll to fysshe wyth at your 
luste. And for the more redynesse loo here a 
fygure,”’ and she adds the curious woodcut which 
the reader may see reproduced at page 5. 
see 
Then follow directions how to dye and make 
lines and hooks. There were evidently no 
manufacturers of hooks in the fifteenth century: 
each angler made his own. The casting of 
plummets and forming of floats succeed. The 
six methods of angling and the mode of playing 
a fish are next treated, and the latter alone 
shows that Dame Juliana must herself have been 
a proficient in the craft. No one but a 
thoroughly good fisher could have summed up 
the art of playing a fish in the words—“kepe 
hym euer vnder the rodde, and euermore holde 
hym streyghte: soo that your lyne may susteyne 
and beere his lepys and his plungys wyth the 
helpe of your croppe & of your honde.”’ The 
place, the time of day, and the weather in which 
to fish, are next particularly described after the 
exactitude peculiar to fishing manuals of the 
olden time. These paragraphs are well worth 
the consideration of a modern angler, especially 
the charge, “yf the wynde be in the Eest, that is 
worste For comynly neyther wynter nor somer 
ye fysshe woll not byte thenne.” 
The following part of the treatise, with what 
baits and how to angle for each kind of fish, 
together with a brief description of each, cer- 
tainly furnished Walton with a model for some 
of his chapters. This portion of her book is 
regarded by the authoress as most necessary to 
be known, and proficiency in carrying out her 
rules “‘is all the effecte of the crafte.’’ She adds 
amusingly, “for ye can not brynge an hoke in 
to a fyssh mouth wythout a bayte.” A few of 
the quaint receipts of her age succeed; how to 
keep live baits, to make pastes and the like, 
ending with a rule which is often given to 
fly-fishers for trout at the present day: ‘“‘Whan 
ye haue take a grete fysshe: vndo the mawe, & 
what ye fynde therin make that your bayte: for 
it iS beste.” 
Just as the authoress rises to eloquence at the 
beginning of the treatise when comparing the 
fisher’s happy life with the toils and troubles 
which too often fall to the lot of the hunter, 
hawker, and fowler, so the end of these rules 
once more recalls her enthusiasm. The last 
two pages of the book give us a portrait of her 
conception of the perfect angler, and it is no 
presumption to say that a nobler and truer 
picture has never been limned. Simplicity of 
disposition, forbearance to our neighbors’ 
rights, and consideration for the poor, are 
strongly inculcated. All covetousness in fishing 
or employment of its gentle art to increase 
wordly gain and fill the larder is equally con- 
demned. She holds the highest view of angling; 
that it is to serve a man for solace, and to cause 
the health of his body, but especially of his soul. 
So she would have him pursue his craft alone 














THE HORSEFOOT WILL WALTZ WITH THE GREAT SPIDER CRAB, 
