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The GREAT ANTERNATIONAD:
‘ity (ISHERGE [XHIIBITION

Vy LITERATURE OF
AY, SBA AND RIVER FISHING

BY

J. Jd. MANLEY, M.A.

AUTHOR OF *‘ NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING,” ETC,, ETC.

ae ar CI
~ INTERNATIONAL HiSHERIES EXHIBITION
al ‘AND 13 CHARING CROSS: SW?

ONE SHILLING

dapat

——2-039400-—

’ The following Handbooks upon subjects cognate to the
International Fisheries Exhibition are already published,
or in active preparation :—

NOW READY.
Demy 8v0., in Illustrated Wrapper 1s. each ; or bound in cioth 2s. each,

THE FISHERY LAWS. By Freperick PoLtock, Barrister-at-
Law, M.A. (Oxon.), Hon. LL.D. Edin. ; Corpus Christi Professor of Juris-
prudence in the University of Oxford.

ZOOLOGY AND FOOD FISHES. By Grorcz B, Howes,
Demonstrator of Biology, Normal School of Science, and Royal School of Mines,
South Kensington.

BRITISH MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES,
(Zilustrated.) By W. SAVILLE KENT, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Author of Official Guide-
books to the Brighton. Manchester, and Westminster Aquaria.

APPARATUS FOR FISHING. By E. W. H. Hotpswortu,
F.L.S., F.Z.S., Special Commissioner for Juries, International Fisheries
Exhibition; Author of ‘‘Deep Sea Fisheries and Fishing Boats,” ‘‘ British
Industries—Sea Fisheries,” &c.

THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. By His Excellency SPENCER
WALPOLE, Lieut.-Governor of the Isle of Man.

THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. Bv James G.
BERTRAM, Author of ‘‘ The Harvest of the Sea.”

THE SALMON FISHERIES. (//ustrated.) By C, E. FRYER.
Assistant Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Home Office.

SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. (/iustrated.) By Henry Lex,
FS.

THE ANGLING CLUBS AND PRESERVATION SO-
CIETIES OF LONDON AND THE PROVINCES. ByJ. P. WHEELDON,
late Angling Editor of ‘‘ Bell’s Life.”

INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. (J/lustrated.) By FRancis
Day, F.L.S., Commissioner for India to International Fisheries Exhibition.

A POPULAR HISTORY OF FISHERIES AND FISHER- |
MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. By
W. M. Apams, B.A., formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford; Author of |
‘Zenobia: a Tragedy,’ and inventor of the Ccelometer, |

FISH CULTURE. (Jlustrated.) By Francis Day, F.L.S., Com- |
missioner for India to International Fisheries Exhibition.

SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. By Henry Ler, F.L.S. (//ustrated,) |

ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. By Wi1u1aM SeEnror (“ Red |
Spinner ’”’), {

FISHES OF FANCY: their Place in Myth, Fable, Fairy-
Tale and Folk-Lore, etc. By PHIL ROBINSON.

LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. By
J. J. MANLEY, M.A.

IN THE PRESS.

FISH AS DIET. By W. SrepHen MircHeti, M.A. (Cantab.)

EDIBLE CRUSTACEA. By W. Savitite Kent, F.LS., F.Z.S.,
poe of Official Guidebooks to the Brighton, Manchester, and Westminster

quaria.

THE OUTCOME OF THE EXHIBITION. By A. J. R.
TRENDELL, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Literary Superintendent for
the Fisheries Exhibition.

LONDON :
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limitep,
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13, CHARING CROSS.

LITERATURE

OF

Se eee RIVER PiSliiNG

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SEA AND RIVER FISHING

i 1. MANLEY, M.A.

AUTHOR OF renee ON FISH AND FISHING,” ETC., ETC.

‘ Nature the bull with horns supplies,
The horse with hoofs she fortifies
The fleeting foot on hares bestows,
Qn lions teeth, two dreadful rows!
Grants fish to swim, and birds to fly,

And on their s&z/d bids mez rely.”
Anacreon.

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~~ LIBRARIES

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LONDON
Wate LAM CVOW ES ANDY SiO NSS Ervine
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION
AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1853

EN ke® b)-UC AsiOene

THOUGH this Handbook far exceeds in length all the
other members of that large family to which the Fisheries
Exhibition has given birth, it cannot pretend to traverse
thoroughly all the ground indicated by its title. The
Literature of Sea and River Fishing is so extensive, that
within the present compass only a comparatively brief
survey can be essayed; and this must be mainly confined
to the literary productions of our own country. Even
the names of many English authors must necessarily be
omitted, and the chief of them only find a place.

Necessarily, too, the literature of Freshwater Fishing will
take up by far the greater portion of the space at com-
mand, as books on Sea Fishing are limited in number, and
generally speaking of a purely technical or commercial
character.

Criticism has not been indulged in to any great degree
in the following pages, as the Handbook is principally
intended to be a work of “ reference,” and something in the
way of a “guide” to those who may desire to form a
general idea of the extent and character of our angling
literature.

The quotations introduced may strike some readers, who
are more or less familiar with the subject, as somewhat

“hackneyed”; but necessarily they are so, because they

(7 vile)

are the most appropriate and best illustrative of the
matter in hand, just as the “beaten paths” of travel are
“beaten” because they are the most interesting and
striking. A considerable portion of the quotations is from
authors of early or comparatively early periods, whose
works are not so easily accessible to general readers as are
those of more modern date.

Among the books to which the writer is indebted are
those mentioned towards the end of the.first chapter ; but
he would specially acknowledge the invaluable assistance
of the Lzbhotheca Piscatoria recently published. A longer
and fuller chronological survey of piscatory, and especially
of purely angling literature than that which is here offered
to angling and other readers, has not, he believes, been
hitherto attempted ; and, without the aid of the volume
just mentioned, what has been achieved would have been
almost impossible.

The labour has not been a slight one ; and owing to the
thousands of references it has involved, many mistakes in
names, dates, and other details may have been made. For
these he pleads indulgence at the hands of his readers ;
and concludes these preliminary remarks with the hope
that this little book, like the historic cod-fish caught in
Lynn Deep, in 1626, with three literary treatises in its
stomach, and served before the Vice-Chancellor at Cam-
bridge, will be found at least in some degree to contain

“oood learning and entertainment.”

CHAP.

Me

Iie

ETT.

IV.

V.
WAT
VII.
VIII.

CONG Nees:

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FISHING LITERATURE—CATA-
LOGUES—LIBRARIES, ETC.—AUTHORS ON THE BIp-
LIOGRAPHY OF FISHING

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING, ETC., BEFORE
THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND
(1474 A.D.) é : z en ee i

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING, FROM THE
INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND (1474
A.D.) TO THE TIME OF IZAAK WALTON (1653 A.D.

FIRST EDITION OF “ THE COMPLETE ANGLER ”)

IZAAK WALTON—HIS LITERARY CONTEMPORARIES,

AND SUCCESSORS TO END OF CENTURY XVII.
AUTHORS ON FISH AND FISHING IN CENTURY XVIII.
AUTHORS ON FISH AND FISHING IN CENTURY XIX. .
THE ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING

THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER
FISHING — NEWSPAPERS — REVIEWS—MAGAZINES —
BooKS ON SEA FISHING, ICHTHYOLOGY, AND PIs-
CICULTURE—THE LITERARY ‘ OUTCOME” OF THE

FISHERIES EXHIBITION .

-AGE

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SEA AND RIVER FISHING

CHiN ae Rae

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FISHING LITERATURE—CATA-
EOGUES: —— LIBRARIES, ELC) — AU DHORS ON GEE;
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FISHING.

THE bibliography of Sea and River Fishing, and especially
of the latter, in itself covers such an enormous field that
only a brief glance at it is here possible.

)

The various “Catalogues” of books which have from
time to time been published, as containing all or most of
the known works on piscatory subjects, first claim attention.
For several generations bibliophilists and bibliographers—
several of whom have had more or less interest in pisca-
tory pursuits—have been very busy in their researches into
angling literature, and the catalogues of such literature
have gradually been growing in magnitude and _biblio-
graphical importance. The last out-put of labour from this
literary mine has been the Lzdliotheca Piscatoria by Messrs.
T. Westwood and T. Satchell, a magnum opus in every sense —
of the wordgpand in itself a history of angling literature.

From this it may be gathered that there are in existence
about a score of general catalogues of books relating to

B

2 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING:

fishing and fish, of which a large proportion deal almost
exclusively with the subject of angling. One Rittershusius,
as far back as 1597, in the Prolegomena of an edition of
Oppian, gives a Catalogue of those who besides Oppian have
written something about fish ; and then, after a long gap, we
have, printed at Altenburg in 1750, Kreysig’s list of ancient
writers on hunting, fishing, and other rural amusements.
Enslin followed in the same line in 1823, and Engelmann
ten years later ; both their works being published at Berlin.
In 1842 Schneider published, also at Berlin, a continuation
of the labours of the two authors last mentioned. But of
continental contributors to this branch of literary knowledge
D. Mulder Bosgoed, librarian of the Rotterdam Library,
stands foremost. He published his Bzbhotheca Ichthyologia
et Piscatoria in 1874, a work of great comprehensiveness
and accuracy, which, up to its date, is a very complete
bibliography of angling, and contains notices of books on
every conceivable subject connected with fish and fishing,
and especially of those published on the Continent.

But it is with the piscatorial bibliographers of our country
that we are more immediately concerned. Several of these
to a great extent confined themselves to compiling cata-
logues of books on angling proper, but others have taken
a more comprehensive line. In an interleaved copy of
C. Bowlker’s (of Ludlow) work on angling (1806) was
found a MS. List of Angling Books, by White of
Crickhowell, whose library was dispersed by auction about
the year 1806; and this is probably the first catalogue of

its kind made in this country. It is now in the Denison
collection, but is of no great intrinsic value. The first
of any real importance, entitled A Catalogue of Books on
Angling; with some brief Notices of several of their
Authors, compiled by Sir Henry Ellis, was published in

FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY.

3
1811. It contained a list of between seventy and eighty
works ; and, aided by a revised copy with MS. additions
(now in the Denison collection), Mr. Pickering, in 1836,
published his Lzbotheca Piscatoria, increasing the number
of works to 180, with an intimation that his catalogue would
“be found more extensive than any hitherto published.”
J. Wilson, brother of Professor Wilson of the “ Noctes,”
published a catalogue in 1840, but it contained only 100
works, as he confined his enumeration very strictly to those
which dealt only with angling. The next great advance in
piscatorial bibliography was made in 1847 by the Rev.
G. W. Bethune, who, though hailing from the United States,
we must for the nonce consider an Englishman. In his
edition of Izaak Walton he gives a List of such Works as
relate to Fish and Fishing ; and these number 300, exclu-
sive of those on ichthyology, but inclusive of Greek and Latin
authors who give descriptions of fishing, some of which will
be quoted in the next chapter. The next important cata-
logue is that appended by Mr. J. Russell Smith, the pub-
lisher of Soho Square, to Blakey’s Angling Literature in
1856. It was professedly based on the catalogues above
mentioned, and excluded works “ which only treat inciden-
tally on angling ;” but it claimed to be “a complete list
of English writers on ichthyology.” The number of works
mentioned is 264. By the way, it may here be mentioned
that amongst the books on angling belonging to the writer
of these notes, he has a reprint of the Angler's Progress, by
H. Boaz, written in 1789. This reprint was published by
J. H. Burn, of Maiden Lane, in 1820; and in it is the fol-
lowing advertisement: “Preparing for the Press, and
speedily will be published, A Azbliographical List of all
the books written either for the improvement in or that
are descriptive of the Art of Angling.” The writer has

Be2

4 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

never seen any notice of the actual publication of this
“ List,’ and probably it was never printed. Mr. john
Bartlett, of Boston, U.S., has published a most interest-
ing catalogue of his own valuable collection of books on
fish and fishing.

We now come to what may be called a new epoch in the
history of angling catalogues. In 1861, Mr. T. Westwood
—who wields the fishing-rod as ably as he does the pen—
presented the literary and angling world with A New Bzb-
liotheca Piscatoria ; or a General Catalogue of Angling and
Fishing Literature, with Biographical Notes and Dates.
This was a more ambitious attempt in its line than any
which preceded it, and showed a marked advance in its
field of research. The author laid the literature of all lands
under contribution; and it was to his labours that Herr
Bosgoed, above mentioned, was to a very great extent
indebted, as he himself acknowledges, in the compilation
of his catalogue, in which nearly 600 English works are
enumerated.

But it would be superfluous to dwell. on the contents of
Mr. Westwood’s book, as the new and long-expected Bz6-
liotheca Piscatoria, already referred to, the joint work of,
Mr. Westwood and Mr. T. Satchell, has been published
within the last few months. As Mr. Westwood’s previous
book, like Aaron’s rod which swallowed up the serpents of
the Egyptian magicians, had swallowed up all previous
catalogues, and had in turn been assimilated by Herr
Bosgoed, so now the last Bibliotheca Piscatoria has incor-
porated all its predecessors in this and all other countries.
It is certainly one of the most interesting and masterful
works in the whole range of bibliographical literature ; and
though of necessity, when we consider its subject-matter,

there must still remain addenda et corrigenda, it may be

\

FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5

fairly said to be as complete as it could well be made, its
authors having spared neither time nor pains to perfect what
has evidently been to them a real “labour of love.” Its
publication has been most opportune at a time when fish
and fishing have become subjects of special interest, and
anglers, from the aristocratic capturers of the lordly salmo
salar down to the humble fpécheurs a la ligne, are rightly
called “legion.” “ Piscatoribus sacrum,” inscribed by
Cotton over his fishery-house on the Dove, might be the
appropriate motto of this book ; as anglers will find within
it interest and instruction to the full, while its purely
literary value is almost inestimable from the wealth of
biographical notes, pithy criticisms, and of quaint and
piquant quotations scattered throughout its pages. As
regards its actual contents, suffice it to say that, compared
with Mr. T. Westwood’s Azbliotheca, a small duodecimo
volume of 82 pages, this is a large octavo of 397. That
enumerated 600 works, but in this, as may be learned from
the preface, there are 3158 editions, and reprints of 2148
distinct works registered, including contributions from “ far
Cathay.” Of these 2465 have been personally inspected—
1685 in the Denison collection, 482 in the British Museum,
and 348 in other libraries. The Parliamentary papers on
fish and fishing, which have been included, amount to 727,
together with the titles of 341 Acts of Parliament; and
a separate and exhaustive list is also added of works on
Pisciculture. This will give some idea of the marvellous
store of piscatory information contained in, or suggested
by, the volume, which has been well and by no means
hyperbolically described as a “hagiography for the enthu-
siastic followers of Walton; a substantial help to the
bibliographer; a series of finger-posts by the side of
English history to guide the curious student of diversions

6 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

which found favour with our forefathers; an amusement
for the idle angler as he notes the names of those dis-
tinguished of old in his craft; and a veritable delight to
the scholarly fisherman.” In a word, it is a literary
treasure of which not only anglers but the nation may
be justly proud; and which, though only nominally a
“catalogue,” is a most valuable addition to the Literature
of Sea and River Fishing.

It may be here mentioned that Professor Brown Goode,
who has so ably represented the United States Section at
the Fisheries Exhibition, has for some years been engaged
in the compilation of an elaborate bibliography of ichthy-
ology, fisheries, and fish culture, which will doubtless prove
of great value to all interested in fish and fishing in all parts
of the world.

In addition to the general catalogues which are given in
the Bibliotheca Piscatoria, there is a very interesting list of
over twenty “sale” catalogues, in which books on angling
are a special feature. Most of these sales were conducted by
the well-known firm in which the name of “Sotheby ”
occurs, and they stretch over a considerable number of
years. Among them is the notice of the sale, in March
1854, of the “valuable and unique private library of Mr.
W. P. [William Pickering, above mentioned ], consisting of...
works on angling, embracing the first five and almost
every other edition of Izaak Walton’s Complete Angler, and
also the works of all his favourite authors.” Also the notice
of the sale, in July 1860, of the library of Sir H. E. Ellis,
above mentioned. In some cases the price, which rare
editions of Walton and other angling authors fetched, is
given ; as, for instance, £92 for an illustrated edition of
Walton and Cotton, published by Pickering, and £27 for a
copy of the fourth edition of Secrets of Angling, by J. D., at

FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY. ‘i

the sale of the Rev. F. Corser’s library in 1869 ; £63 for an
illustrated Walton at the sale of W. S. Higgs’s library in
1830; and £40 for a Dr. Gardiner’s Booke of Angling or
Fishing (1606), at the sale of Mr. Lynch Cotton’s collection
in 1856. Dr. Dibden, in his Bzb/éomania, rightly says that
“catalogues are to bibliographers what reports are to
lawyers—not to be read through from end to end, but to be
consulted on doubtful points.” When priced, and with
purchasers’ names, their importance, both as standards of
value and means of tracing the proprietorship of rare and
curious books, is sufficiently obvious. The present seems
to be anage of Bibliothecas ; and it may be incidentally
mentioned that among recent productions of this character
the Bibliotheca Nicotiana—‘ A Catalogue of Books about
Tobacco ’—which mentions over 400 works of various
kinds, and was privately printed in 1880, in connection with
Mr. Bragge’s collection of books and objects connected
with tobacco, is almost as great a success as the Libliotheca
Piscatoria.

Speaking of piscatorial libraries, the authors of the
Libliotheca Piscatoria acknowledge their indebtedness to
several private collections, including those of Mr. Joseph
Grego, and Mr. Alfred Denison of Albemarle Street. The
former is a large collection, principally of old English
books, many of them very scarce, which had taken fifty
years of patient labour to collect. Anglers and _ biblio-
philists of this country will regret to hear that they have
recently found a new owner in the United States, whither
so many piscatory libraries, or the pick of them, are con-
stantly making their way. The library of Mr. Denison, of
Albemarle Street, access to which the writer most grate-
fully acknowledges, may truly be said to be unique, both

for the number and value of its books on angling, and

8 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

indeed on all matters connected with fish and fishing. It
numbers about 3,000 volumes, and yet does not contain
two-thirds of the works (or rather, editions) mentioned
in the Bibliotheca Piscatoria. It is hardly necessary to
enlarge on the enthusiastic devotion and the long purse
required to form such a library, or on its literary value, as
it is only in such a collection that the most rare of angling
books can be consulted. Collectors now sigh in vain for
such volumes, and hunters of old bookstalls and other
places which suggest the possible presence of literary
treasures have very great difficulty in finding old angling
books. The value of these is constantly rising as the
search for them increases, and bibliomania becomes more
and more of an endemic. Recently the writer considered
himself fortunate in picking up one of the volumes by
G. M. (Gervase Markham), dated 1653, which includes a
dissertation on fishing. Several works and their different
editions by that author are not specially scarce ; yet the
second edition of his Young Sportsman's Delight, &c.,
though imperfect, is now worth as many pounds as the
first sold for pence in 1712. The only perfect copy known
to be in existence is that in the Denison library. Many
of the works in this grand collection are almost priceless.
Among others there are two editions of J. D.’s Secrets of
Angling, of the second and third of which there are no
other copies. When these were sold at Prince’s Sale in 1858
they fetched £6 and £3 14s. respectively ; but it would
probably require two o’s added to the 6 to represent the
pounds they would realise now if offered to public com-
petition. Mr. Denison once missed another valuable edition
of J. D.’s Secrets ; and only an enthusiastic collector can
sympathise with the regret he feels at letting slip a chance

which may never offer itself again. Only twice in this

FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY. 9

century has a copy of Dame Juliana Berner’s Boke been
offered in an auction-room. A well-known dealer in such
literary pearls of great price secured one last year for
600 guineas. Mr. Denison has since become the happy
possessor of the other in exchange for £450.

One more very interesting work in the library we must
briefly glance at. It was privately printed for Mr. Denison
himself in 1872, and only twenty-five copies were struck off.
It is entitled, A “Zteral translation into English of the
earliest known book on fowling and fish, written originally
in Elemish, and printed in the year 1492. The Boecxken
was printed (black-letter) by Matthias van der Goes, but
also contains the printer’s mark of Godfridus Bach, who
married Van der Goes’ widow. It contains twenty-six
chapters of a very few lines each, in eight leaves, with six
woodcuts, and gives recipes for artificial baits, unguents,
and pastes, and the periods at which certain fish are “at
their best.’ In date it thus has the priority of the Book
of St. Albans, as far as fishing goes.

And now we must reluctantly leave this storehouse of
literary treasures, so admirably bound and arranged, in
their resting-places, and so lovingly cared for and guarded.
Flabent sua fata libelli ; and if priceless tomes, which re-
ceive greater attention than even royal nurselings, have any
feelings, they must rejoice at having found such a home as
that in Albemarle Street, where they are the very joy of
the soul of their possessor, and we hope safe for a very
long time to come from the ups and downs of the famous
black-letter volume of Dame Juliana Berners, as told in
Mr. Blades’s charming Exemies of Books.

It is very difficult to make an accurate statement as to
the number of books in existence on angling “pure and

simple,” as so many works in a greater or less degree

Io LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

include cognate matter. The Mew Libliotheca Piscatoria
of Westwood (1861, and Supplement, 1869) claimed to
“include 650 distinct works on the sport” of angling ; but
no statement appears to be made on this point by the
authors of the 4zbliotheca of the present year. Mr. Charles
Estcourt, F.C.S., a member of the Manchester Anglers’
Association, in a most interesting paper on the “ Biblio-
graphy of Angling,” read before the members, and pub-
lished in Anglers’ Evenings, says that “the mother-country
possessed in 1861 no less than 470 works upon fish and
fishing”; and that the various countries of the world
contributed to piscatory literature, as regards the number
of works, in the following order :—Great Britain, Germany,
France, America, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain,
and Norway. Also, with a view to show the literary position
of each of the more prominent angling countries, he gives
the following table as the result of an analysis of publishers’
lists and catalogues up to the month of September 1879 :—

Britain. Germany. France. America
Real angling works. . . 4II 64 4I 12

Natural history, which in-

cludes ichthyology, pisci- 50 18 15 3
culture, &c. Se ee
Poetry andrhyme . . . 37 a re
INE DORtSmesanee al dele. | 59 6 4
mocaleet aie: ba L557, 88 60 I5

In this list, under the name of each country, are included
only those books which are printed in the language of that |
country. The grand total is 720, of which Great Britain
contributes more than three times as many as the other
countries put together; thus testifying to the fact that she
is the home of, and great international instructress in, the

“gsentle art.” But after all, notwithstanding the above

FISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY. Il

figures and statements, we do not seem to possess a really
accurate statement as to the relative number of books on
angling “pure and simple,” and on other piscatory subjects,
which have up to the present time been published in this
and other countries.

This chapter may perhaps be appropriately concluded
with the mention of one or two treatises that deal with the
subject in hand, so that readers who are specially interested
in piscatorial bibliography may know where to find fuller
information, and very many interesting facts connected with
it, which the present limitation of space renders it impossible
to touch on. In addition to the “catalogues” and other
works above referred to, suchas Blakey’s Angling Literature
(J. R. Smith, Soho Square), which, by the way, has many
inaccuracies scattered about its pages, and Mr. Estcourt’s
paper in Axglers’ Evenings (Abel Heywood, Manchester),
may be mentioned an erudite and charming little volume
by Mr. Osmund Lambert, entitled Angling Literature in
England (Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London), which
briefly surveys the whole of angling bibliography. Among
articles of considerable length which have appeared in
current literature during the last few years, the reader may
be referred to The Fly-fisher and his Library, by H. R.
Francis, which appeared in the “ Cambridge Essays” in
1856 (J. W. Parker & Son, London), most pleasant literary
chit-chat, but necessarily somewhat discursive and limited
in its range; and to “The Angler's Library” in the July
number of the Edinburgh Review of the current year,
wherein will be found much curious and solid information,
as well as light and entertaining reading. Blackwood and
other magazines have also of late years contained more or
less lengthy notices on the bibliography of fishing ; and the
volumes of Motes and Queries, and The Angler's Note-Book

12 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

(Satchell & Co., London), may be consulted with pleasure
and profit. Dr. Badham’s Axcient and Modern Fish Tattle
is another book—one of the most interesting ever written
on fish and fishing—which abounds with notes on piscatory

bibliography.

Cer)

CHALLE ROL

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING, ETC., BEFORE
THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND,
A.D. 1474.

IT is difficult to say when fishing came to be practised by
the ancients as an amusement. Of course it was first
resorted to, both by means of nets and of hooks and lines,
for the purpose of procuring food. But, doubtless, in very
early times, what seems to be the instinctive desire of man
to capture animals fere nature, led him to pursue fishing
as “a sport,’ and not merely for “the pot”; and many
ancient coins, gems, frescoes, mural inscriptions, and
other “antiquities” preserved to the present day, bear
testimony to this fact, “the angle” being frequently re-
presented. Certain it is, too, that the Greeks, Romans,
and Egyptians, during what may be called the historic
period, pursued angling as a pastime. We should naturally,
therefore, expect that ancient writers would allude to, if
not compose treatises on, fishing from both the above
points of view, and especially from that of “sport,” as
being more interesting and giving wider scope for descrip-
tions both in prose and verse.

Atheneus—called by Suidas ypayparixos, a term which
is best rendered into English as “a literary man”—who
wrote in the middle of the third century, and whose pet
subjects seem to have been grammar and gastronomy, cites
in his writings no less than 1,200 separate works and
800 authors, and of the latter the names of a very large
number are given in his Depuosophiste (“ Banquet of the

14 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Learned ”) as those of authors who had written on fish and
fishing. The great majority of their compositions are un-
fortunately lost to us, but their names are a testimony to
the abundance of ancient literature of the net and angle.

But the words “ancient” and “literature” are very com-
prehensive, and cover a very wide field ; and it may be a
question as to how far authors who only incidentally make
mention of, or very briefly describe, fishing of various kinds,
should be included among contributors to angling literature.
Enthusiasts in this matter claim among them the authors
of several books in the Bible, such as the author of the
Book of Job, the prophet Amos, Habakkuk, and Isaiah,
the prophecy of which latter concerning the destruction of
Egypt, Bishop Lowth has thus translated :—

“ And the fishes shall mourn and lament ;
All those that cast the hook in the river,
And those that spread nets on the surface of the waters, shall
languish ;
And they that work the fine flax shall be confounded,
And they that weave net-work ;
And her shores shall be broken up ;
Even all that make a gain of pools of fish.”

But the Biblical notices of fishing are really only evidences
of the antiquity of the practice, and of the “engines ” used
in its prosecution. Herodotus is claimed as a piscatory
author, because he tells us of the fisheries of the Lake Meeris ;
and of course Homer is pressed into the service in conse-
quence of his several allusions to angling. In the 16th
Iliad (408), for instance, reference is made to hook and line
fishing, and the passage has been rather freely translated
thus :—
“‘ As from some rock that overhangs the flood
The silent fisher casts the insidious food ;

With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies.”

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

In the 12th Odyssey (251) “a very long fishing-rod” is
spoken of ; and in a passage a little further on the com-
panions of Ulysses resort to fishing “ with crooked hooks” ;
and yet another passage refers to the use of pieces of bullock’s
horn in fishing, which, by the way, does not mean that
the hook was made of this material, but that the piece
of horn was slipped down the line to prevent the fish
biting through it. The Greek tragedians frequently allude
to fishing. Aristotle shows a wonderful knowledge of fish,
and in his Azzmalia recognises 117 different kinds. Theo-
critus, the Sicilian, who flourished about 270 B.C., and of
whose /dyl/s there are several English translations, may
fairly claim rank as an ancient piscatory poet. In his
21st Idyll a fisherman is represented as recounting a
dream of the previous night—

‘** Methought I sat upon a shelfy steep,
And watch’d the fish that gamboll’d in the deep.”

A huge one takes the “bait /al/acious, suspended from
his rod” ; and then is described the “ playing” of the fish,
as best it could be played in an era before winches and

running lines were thought of :—

“ Bent was my rod, and from his gills the blood
With crimson stream distain’d the silver flood ;
I stretch’d my arm out lest the hook should break—
The flesh so vigorous, and my hook so weak !
Anxious I gaz’d ; he struggled to be gone:
You’re wounded—I’ll be with you, friend, anon—
Still do you tease me ?—for he plagu’d me sore.
At last, quite spent, I drew him safe on shore,
Then graspt him with my hand, for surer hold :
A noble prize, a fish of solid gold !”

This is rather a poor translation, but it will answer its
purpose. Perhaps that by Chapman (Bohn, 1853) is the
best.

16 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Passing on to later times, we have Virgil in his Georgics
singing,
“‘ How casting nets were spread in shallow brooks ;
Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks.”
And after the Christian era we have Ovid entering the
lists of angling literature, and telling us in his Ars A matoria

how

“The wary angler in the winding brook,
Knows what the fish and where to bait his hook ;”

and how he plies “his gu¢vering rod.” In his Haleuticon
(if the fragment be rightly credited to him, which some
critics question) he gives us much genuine angling infor-
mation, and amusing notices of the expertness of different
fish in escaping from the angler’s hook. Pliny shows
himself a learned ichthyologist, and is the first Latin poet
who makes even cursory mention of the king of the Sal-
monidee (S. sa/ar) as frequenting rivers in Aquitaine. He
also gives many most interesting accounts of the modes of
capture of various fish. Here is one of the capture of the
Anthea, which is quaint in itself, and quaint in the words
of Ph. Holland’s translation :—

““When the time serveth there goeth forth a fisher in a small
boat or barge, for certaine daies together, a prettie way into the
sea, clad alwaies in apparell of one and the same colour, at one
houre and to the same place still, when he casteth forth a bait for
the fish. But the fish antheus is so craftie and warie, that what-
soever is throwne forth hee suspecteth it evermore that it is a
meanes to surprise him. He feareth therefore and distrusteth ;
and as he feareth, so is he as warie ; until at length, after much
practice and often using this device of flinging meat into the
same place, one above the rest groweth so hardy and bold as to
bite at it. The fisher takes good mark of this one fish, making
sure reckoning that he will bring more thither, and be the meanes
that he shall speed his hand in the end. At length this hardie

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 17

capitaine meets with some other companions, and by little and
little he cometh every day better accompanied than other, until
in the end he bringeth with him infinite troupes and squadrons
together, so as now the eldest of them all (as craftie as they bee)
being so well used to know the fisher, that they will snatch meat
out of his hands; then he, espying his time, putteth forth an hook
with a bait, and speedily with a quick and nimble hand whippeth
them out of the water, and giveth them one after another to his
companion in the ship—who ever, as they be snatched up,
latcheth them in a coarse twille or covering, and keepes them
sure ynough from either strougling or squeaking, that they should
not drive the rest away. The speciall thing that helpeth this
game and pretie sport is to know the capitaine from the rest, who
brought his fellowes to this feast, and to take heed in any hand
that he be not twicht up and caught; and therefore the fisher
spareth him, that he may flie and goe to some other flocke for to
traine them to the like banket. Thus you see the manner of
fishing for these anthize.”

Plutarch also tells us a good deal about fish and fishing,
and relates the well-known story of the angling match
between Antony and Cleopatra, which makes as certain an
appearance in every book on angling, as does Macaulay’s
New Zealander on the ruins of London Bridge in the work
of every writer who can possibly squeeze him into his pro-
duction. Martial shows us that the Romans of his time
knew something of fly-fishing, by asking—

“Who has not seen the scarus rise,
Decoy’d and kill’d by fraudful flies ?”

But we learn from A¢lian, a contemporary of Martial,
at the beginning of the 2nd century, that this art was
known far away from Rome. In Book XV., Ch. I., of his
De Animalium Naturdéd he says (according to the transla-
tion from Schneider’s edition given by Mr. Lambert) :—

“‘ T have heard of a Macedonian way of catching fish, and it is

this: between Beroca and Thessalonica runs a river called the
Cc

18 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Astracus, and in it there are fish with spotted (or speckled) skins ;
what the natives of the country call them you had better ask the
Macedonians. ‘These fish feed on a fly which is peculiar to the
country, and which hovers over the river. It is not like flies
found elsewhere, nor does it resemble a wasp in appearance, nor
in shape would one justly describe,it as a midge or a bee, yet it
has something of each of these. In boldness it is like a fly, in
size you might call it a bee, it imitates the colour of the wasp, and
it hums like a bee. The natives call it the Hippouros. As these
flies seek their food over the river, they do not escape the obser-
vation of the fish swimming below. When then a fish observes
a fly hovering above, it swims quietly up, fearing to agitate the
water, lest it should scare away its prey, then coming up by its
shadow, it opens its jaws and gulps down the fly, like a wolf
carrying off a sheep from the flock, or an eagle a goose from the
farmyard ; having done this it withdraws under the rippling water.
Now though the fishermen know of this, they do not use these
flies at all for bait for the fish ; for if a man’s hand touch them,
they lose their colour, their wings decay, and they become unfit
for food for the fish. For this reason they have nothing to do
with them, hating them for their bad character; but they have
planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their
fisherman’s craft. Zhey fasten red (crimson red) wool round a
hook and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a
cock’s wattles, and which in colour are like wax. ‘Their rod is
six feet long and the line is of the same length. Then they throw
their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour,
comes up, thinking from the pretty sight to get a dainty mouthful;
when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook and
enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.”

It may be taken for granted that these “spotted” fish
were some kind of trout, or at least members of the
Salmonide family, who are still so open to having a rise
taken out of them by the “fraudful fly.” Elian also
describes minutely a variety of methods of fish capture,
and among them a very singular mode of taking eels,

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 19

which is a much more ingenious device than the modern
practice of “sniggling” with a mop of threaded lob-worms.
He says :—

“The artful eeler pitches upon a spot favourable for his
purpose at the turn of a stream, and lets down from where he
stands, on the high bank, some cubits’ length of the intestines of
a sheep, which, carried down by the current, is eddied and
whirled about, and presently perceived by the eels, one of whom
adventurously gobbling some inches at the nether end, endeavours
to drag the whole away. The angler, perceiving this, applies the
other end, which is fixed to a long tubular reed serving in lieu of
a fishing-rod, to his mouth, and blows through it into the gut.
The gut presently swells, and the fish next receiving the air into
his mouth, swells too, and being unable to extricate his teeth is
lugged out, adhering to the inflated intestine.”

fElian also speaks of the 7Zymalus, which we may almost
certainly take to be the grayling, as he assigns it to the
rivers Ticeno and Adige, in which it still abounds; the
name itself is still associated with the grayling, which has
always been considered to emit a thyme-like fragrance ;
and the fly, in accordance with what Elian says, is its
favourite food.

A voluminous writer on fish and fishing, who chrono-
logically next presents himself for mention is Oppian, who
was born in the year 183. His chief work was his Halieu-
tics, a poem of five books in Greek hexameters, which he
is said to have publicly recited in a theatre. A very fair
translation of it is that of Diaper (not Draper, as frequently
given) and Jones (Oxford, 1772). Many of the quotations
from his writings, in their English form, are well known to
all readers of books on angling; but, though hackneyed,
a few of them must be here introduced. The modern
angler cannot fail to enter into their spirit, and feel that the

€eZ

20 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

fishermen of old were of the same fraternity as “ brothers
of the angle” now. This is how Aélian divides fishermen
into classes :—

“‘ By those who curious have their art defined,
Three sorts of fishers are distinct assigned ;
The first in hooks delight, here some prepare
The angler’s taper length and twisted hair ;
Others the tougher heads of flax entwine,
But firmer hands sustain the sturdy line ;
A third prevails by more compendious ways,
While numerous hooks one common line displays.”

The following is a capital rendering of a famous pas-
sage :—

“A bite! Hurrah! the length’ning line extends,
Above the tugging fish the arch’d reed bends ;
He struggles hard, and noble sport will yield,
My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field.
See how he swims up, down, and now athwart
The rapid stream—now pausing as in thought ;
And now you force him from the azure deep ;
He mounts, he bends, and with resilient leap
Bounds into air! There see the dangler twirl,
Convulsive start, hang, curl, again uncurl,
Caper once more like young Terpsichore
In giddy gyres above the sounding sea,
Till near’d you seize the prize with steady wrist,
And grasp at last the bright funambulist.”

Here is another :—

“‘ The fisher, standing from the shallop’s head,
Projects the length’ning line and plunging lead,
Gently retracts, then draws it in apace,

While flocking anthias follow and give chase
As men their foe, so these pursue their fate,
And closely press the still receding bait.

Nor long in vain the tempting morsel pleads,
A hungry anthia seizes, snaps, and bleeds ;
The fraud soon felt, he flies in wild dismay,
Whiz goes the line—begins Piscator’s play !

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 21

His muscles tense, each tendon on the rack,

Of swelling limbs, broad loins, and sinewy back.
Mark yon fine form, erect with rigid brow,

Like stately statue sculptured at the prow,

From wary hand who pays the loosening rein
Manceuvring holds, or lets it run again!

And see! the anthia not a moment flags,

Resists each pull, and ’gainst the dragger drags ;
With lashing tail, to darkest depths below
Shoots headlong down, in hopes t’ evade the foe.
‘ Now ply your oars, my lads!’ Piscator bawls ;
The huge fish plunges—down Piscator falls !

A second plunge, and, lo! th’ ensanguined twine
Flies through his fissured fingers to the brine.
As two strong combatants of balanced might
Force first essay, then practise every sleight,

So these contend—awhile a well-matched pair—
Till frantic efforts by degrees impair

The anthia’s strength, who, drain’d of vital blood,
Soon staggers feebly through the foaming flood,
Then dying, turns his vast unwieldy bulk
Reversed upon the waves, a floating hulk.

Tow’d to his side, with joy Piscator sees

The still leviathin ; still on his knees,

With arms outstretch’d, close clasps the gurgling throat,
Makes one long pull and hauls him in the boat.”

There is a true piscatorial ring about these lines. So
there is in the following, which describes the troller making
ready his line for the capture of sea fish, much after the
fashion of modern trollers in fresh water, with a dace or
eudgeon on their gorge-hook :—

“ He holds the labrax, and beneath his head
Adjusts with care an oblong shape of lead,
Named from its form a dolphin ; plumb’d with this
The bait shoots headlong through the blue abyss.
The bright decoy a living creature seems,
As now on this side, now on that, it gleams,
Till some dark form across its passage flit,
Pouches the lure, and finds the biter’s bit.”

22 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Oppian, however, recommends as a bait a living labrax,
when one is to be got. Here is an account of how sargues
or sargs (a species of Sparzd@) were captured in ancient
days. The biographers of these fish say that the males
are extremely uxorious, and fortunately are able to obtain
the hyper-mormonistic accompaniment of at least a hundred
wives apiece; and further that the tribe have such a strong
affection for goats, that when a herd come down to bathe
they flock to the place, and there remain for a long time.
Hence the fishermen were in the habit of dressing them-
selves in goat-skins and skinning the water of the poor

sargs—Credat Judeus—

** When bleating concerts and the deeper sound
Of shepherds echo through the vast profound,
With eager haste th’ unwieldy Sargos move,
By nature slow, but swift to meet their love ;
With wanton gambols greet the horned fair,
Vault o’er the waves and flutter in the air ;
Unhappy lovers, who too soon shall find,
Their pleasures hollow and their goats unkind.
Deceitful swains, the fatal hint improve,

And arm the flattering destinies with love.

A goat-skin o’er his back the fisher throws,
And sets th’ erected horns above his brows ;
The flesh and fat incorporates with flour,

And scatters o’er the flood a foodful shower,
The fair disguise and scented victuals’ charms,
With joint attraction call the finny swarms ;
They round the mimic goat in crowds repair,
Thoughtless their sports, their joys are insincere.
Poor ignorants! a deadly mate they find,

His shape familiar, but estranged his mind.

A sturdy rod his latent hand extends,

The flaxen cordage from the top descends,

The fleshy feet of goats unhoof’d conceal

With odoriferous bait the barbed steel ;

With unsuspicious haste the fish devours,
Mounts to the jerk, and tumbles on the shores.”

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 23

In another passage he relates how the fishermen of the
Tyrrhine Sea constructed light skiffs, resembling Xiphias,
which attracted these fish, and from which the fishermen
harpooned them. He also mentions and gives the use of a
great variety of ancient nets, to which, as he says, he might
have added many more but for the exigencies of verse :—

“A thousand names a fisher might rehearse
Of nets, intractable in smoother verse.”

And specially he describes the meshed “engine,” used for
the capture of thunny; so immense, complex, and intri-

cate, that—

“Nets like a city to the floods descend,
And bulwarks, gates, and noble streets extend.”

He thus shows that the ancients kept a magnificent stock
of nets, and probably anticipated in many instances what
we imagined to be modern improvements or inventions.

His sketch of the well-known pilot fish, or “whale’s
friend,” is very pretty, and even touching :—

“‘ Bold in the front the little pilot glides,
Averts each danger, every motion guides ;
With grateful joy the willing whales attend,
Observe the leader and revere the friend :
True to the little chief obsequious roll,
And soothe in friendship’s charms their savage soul.
Between the distant eyeballs of the whale
The watchful pilot waves his faithful tail,
With signs expressive points the doubtful way,
The bulky tyrants doubt not to obey,
Implicit trust repose in him alone,
And hear and see with senses not their own ;
To him the important reins of life resign,
And every self-preserving care decline.”

Under the Greek name “Echeneis,” 2.2, “stay-ship”’
y-snip

24 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

(Latin vemora), Oppian well describes the “sucking-
fish” :—

“ Slender his shape, his length a cubit ends,
No beauteous spot the gloomy race commends :
An eel-like clinging kind, of dusky looks,
His jaws display tenacious rows of hooks ;
The sucking fish beneath, with secret chains
Within his teeth, the sailing ship detains.”

The“ cramp-fish” of the Greeks, or torpedo of the
moderns, must have been an awkward customer to tackle,
if Oppian’s description be correct :—

“ The cramp-fish when the pungent pain alarms,
Exerts his magic pow’rs and passion’d charms,
Clings round the line, and bids th’ embrace infuse
From fertile cells comprest his subtil juice,

Th’ aspiring tide its restless volume rears,
Rolls up the steep ascent of slipp’ry hairs,
Then down the rod with easy motion slides,
And entering in the fisher’s hand subsides.
On every point an icy stiffness steals,

The flowing spirits bind, and blood congeals.
Down drops the rod dismist, and floating lies,
Drawn captive in its turn, the fish’s prize.”

Some of Oppian’s best bits are his animated descriptions
of fish sea-fights, in which the combatants are as intensely
personified as his Homeric Greeks and Trojans in their
hand-to-hand combats on the banks of the Simois and
Scamander. But unlike mortal heroes, the aqueous bellig-
erents of Oppian pull each other to pieces without any
responsibility on their part or shock to moral sense on

Ours ==
“ Unwise we blame the rage of warring fish,
Who urged by hunger #zuzs¢ supply the wish ;
Whilst cruel man, to whom his ready food
Kind earth affords, yet thirsts for human blood.”

From Oppian we gather that the ancients were well

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 25

versed in the use of all kinds of medicated and scented
pastes, both as baits and ground-baits for fish, and also
with a variety of intoxicants and narcotics, by which fish
could be rendered senseless and capturable. The cyclamen,
or “sow-bread,” was known to the ancients, as it is to the
Neapolitans and others at the present time, as having a
special property of drugging fish; and the poet tells us

that—
“Soon as the deadly cyclamen invades

The ill-starr’d fishes in their deep-sunk glades,
Emerging quick the prescient creatures flee
Their rocky fastnesses, and make for sea,
Nor respite know ; the slowly-working bane
Creeps o’er each sense and poisons every vein,
Then pours concentred mischief on the brain.
Some drugg’d, like men o’ercome with recent wine,
Reel to and fro, and stagger through the brine ;
Some in quick circlets whirl ; some ’gainst the rocks
Dash, and are stunn’d by repercussive shocks ;
Some with quench’d orbs or filmy eyeballs thick
Rush on the nets and in the meshes stick ;
In coma steep’d, their fins some feebly ply ;
Some in tetanic spasms gasp and die....
Soon as the plashings cease and stillness reigns,
The jocund crew collect and count their gains.”

But almost irresistible as the temptation is to quote
further from this most interesting author, even in his
English garb, we must pass on. Arrian, a Greek historian,
who lived in the second century, and rose to the highest
dignities in Rome, furnishes us with some _ interesting
details of an almost exclusively ichthyophagous com-
munity in India, and their wonderful skill, both in the
manufacture and use of nets made from the inner
bark of palm-trees. Towards the close of the second
century we have Julius Pollux, a Greek writer who, in one
of the books of his Oxomasticon, tells us a good deal about
fish and fishing.

26 LITERATURE GF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

We will take Ausonius to represent the fourth century.
He is a notable piscatory writer, and is the first Latin poet
who mentions the salmon under its present title :—

“ Nec te puniceo rutilantem viscere sal/mo .
Transierim.”
And in another passage :—

“ Purpureusque saday stellatus tergora guttis.”

He further also distinguishes it by different names, accord-
ing to its age, as it is distinguished now; though modern
nomenclature, varying as it does in so many different
districts in the United Kingdom, leads to great confusion,
and has been a bar to the advancement of knowledge as
regards salmonoid biology. He mentions also the trout
and grayling, the latter under its significant title of
“umbra” (umber), given it because of its quickly passing

out of sight by its rapid movements like a “shadow ” :—
“ Effugiens oculis celeri wmdbra natatu.”

Ausonius seems to be the first author in prose or poetry
who introduces the pike or jack (Esox luctus). Thus :—

“ The wary @uce, midst wrack and rushes hid,

The scourge and terror of the scaly brood ;”
and, gastronomically deprecating him, adds :—
“ Unknown at friendship’s hospitable board,

Smokes ’midst the smoky tavern’s coarsest food.”
The Mosella (Moselle) is Ausonius’s chief work, in which
he describes the beauty of the river, the fish therein, and
the anglers who take them thereout. Here is a picture
of angling in the passage beginning with “Ille autem
scopulis ;” and though it might run better in a metrical

translation, reads fairly well as given by Mr. Lambert :—

“‘ While the other, stooping over the rocks towards the waters
below, lowers the bending top of his limber rod, casting his hooks

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 27

laden with killing baits. Upon these the vagrant crowd of fishes,
unskilled in snares, rush, and their gaping jaws feel too late the
wounds inflicted by the hidden steel; their quivering tells the
fisherman of his success, and the wavy rod yields to the quivering
tremor of the shaking line ; and at once the angler jerks sideways
his stricken prey with a whistling sound (i.e. the rapidity of his
action in bringing out his line makes the air whistle). The air
receives the blow, as when it resounds with the cracking of a
whip, and the wind hisses from the air in motion. The watery
spoils (i.e. caught fish) jump on the dry rocks, and dread the
death-dealing beams of the light of day. They, that were so full
of vigour in their native waters, spiritless gasp out their wasting
lives in our air ; now with weakened body they wriggle feebly on
the ground—the torpid tail quivers its last ; the jaws do not close,
but through its gills, dying it gives back in mortal gasps the
breath it draws; as when the wind plays on the fires of a work-
shop the (opening) mouth of the beech-covered (sided) bellows
alternately draws in and expels the blast. Some (fish) I have
seen even at the point of death gather up their strength, then
spring aloft and fling their curved bodies headlong into the
stream below and regain enjoyment of the waters lost to hope ;
while after them the fisherman, impatient at his loss, wildly leaps,
and by swimming vainly strives to grasp them again.”

It has been suggested by Mr. Lambert that as the Salme
flows into the Moselle, it was probably from it that the
salmon took its name, unless, indeed, it was the fish that
gave its name to the river, just as “colours” have often
given their names to “materials.” Mr. Lambert also
mentions that Ansonius wrote a poem “on the oyster ”’—
a subject which we can well understand does not readily
lend itself to poetical treatment, unless the “blessed bi-
valve” were dilated upon as being happy in love, as well as
“crossed in love,” in accordance with the suggestion in 7e
Critic of Sheridan.

fEsop in the sixth century introduced fish and fishing

28 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

into his fables ; and a long stride brings us to Cassianus
Bassus, who flourished in the beginning of the tenth century.
The twentieth book of his Geoponica is almost entirely
devoted to fishing and baits.

It is not pretended that the above-mentioned authors
exhaust the list of Greek, Roman, and other writers on
fish and fishing during the first ten centuries; but the
extracts given are sufficient to show that the subject from
very early times gradually gave rise to a literature more or
less its own. Authors who treated of the vzvarza, or fish-
stews of the Romans, might be quoted, notably Varro (who
wrote De Re Rustica in his eightieth year), Columella,
Palladius, and several others also, in whose works a good
deal of halieutic and ichthyological information is to be
found scattered up and down.

Numberless early works on fish and fishing have been
wholly or partially lost to us, among which may be
mentioned those of piscatory poets, such as Numeneus of
Heraclea, Coecius of Argos, Poseidonius of Corinth,
Pancrates the Arcadian, and Leonidas of Tarentum. Of
these only a few fragments have been preserved ; and the
follewing translation (Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xxxviii.)
of an “ Epitaph of an Angler,” by the last-named, is worth
quoting :—

“ Parmis, the son of Callignotus—he
Who troll’d for fish the margin of the sea,
Chief of his craft, whose keen, perceptive search,
The kichlé, scarus, bait-devouring perch,
And such as love the hollow clefts, and those
That in the caverns of the deep repose,
Could not escape—is dead.
Parmis had lured
A julis from its rocky haunts, secured

Between his teeth the slippery pert, when, lo!
It jerk’d into the gullet of its foe,

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 29

Who fell beside his lines and hooks and rod,
And the choked fisher sought his last abode.
His dust lies here. Stranger, this humble grave
An angler to a brother angler gave.”

The “Old Fathers” of the church have been cited as
contributors to the literature of fish and fishing, such as
Clemens Alexandrinus, Basil, Ambrose of Milan, Athan-
asius, Augustine, Isidore of Seville, and others; but their
contributions in most cases are little more than allusions.
Isidore, however, in his De Ordine Creaturarum, gives an
account of fish, and the seas and rivers they inhabit ; and
the well-known passage, referred to by Izaak Walton, from
the Hevameron ; or, the Six Days Work of Creation, by St.
Ambrose, anent the grayling (Salmo thymallus), always
deserves to be quoted as a happy description. The trans-
lation of the Latin may thus run :—

“ Nor shall I leave thee unhonoured in my discourse, O Thy-
mallus (grayling), whose name is given thee by a flower: whether
the waters of the Ticino produce thee or those of the pleasant
Atesis, a flower thou art. In fine, the common saying attests it;
for it is pleasantly said of one who gives out an agreeable sweet-
ness, he smells either of fish or flower: thus the fragrance of the
fish is asserted to be the same as that of the flower. What is
more pleasing than thy form? more delightful than thy sweet-
ness? more fragrant than thy smell? The fragrance of the
honey exhales from thy body.”

So gastronomically enchanted was the good bishop with
the grayling, that it is said he “never let it pass without
the honour of a discourse.”

Perhaps as a “curiosity of literature” connected with
fish, the sermon said to have been delivered by St. Anthony
of Padua (351 to 356 A.D.), to a “miraculous congregation
of fishes,” may here be given. It is taken from a curious

30 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

little volume in the writer’s possession, the third edition of
The Angler's Museum, by T. Shirley, the first edition of
which was published in 1784. The sermon, with some
introductory and closing remarks, was prefixed to the second
edition, and altogether stands thus :—

“The following Curious Sermon,

preached by St. ANTHONY of
Papua, 77 ITALY, fo a miraculous
CONGREGATION of FISHES,
extracted from ADDISON’S
TRAVELS, 7s here inserted
jor the Amusement of our
READERS,

“When the Hereticks would not regard his preaching, he
betook himself to the seashore, where the river Marecchia dis-
embogues itself into the Adriatic. He here called the fish
together in the name of God, that they might hear his holy word.
The fish came swimming towards him in such vast shoals, both
from the sea and river, that the surface of the water was quite
covered with their multitudes. They quickly arranged themselves
according to their several species, into a very beautiful congrega-
tion ; and, like so many rational creatures, presented themselves
before him to hear the word of God. St. Antonio was so struck
with the miraculous obedience and submission of these poor
animals, that he found a secret sweetness distilling upon his soul,
and at last addressed himself to them in the following words :—

““¢ Although the infinite power and providence of God (my
dearly beloved fish) discovers itself in all the works of the
creation, as in the heavens, in the sun, in the moon, and in the
stars ; in this lower world, in man, and in other perfect creatures ;
nevertheless, the goodness of the Divine Majesty shines out in
you more eminently, and appears after a more particular manner,
than in any other created beings; for, notwithstanding you are
comprehended under the name of reptiles, partaking in a middle
nature between stone and beasts, and imprisoned in the deep
abyss of waters; notwithstanding you are tossed among the

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 31

billows, thrown up and down by tempests, deaf to hearing, dumb
to speech, and terrible to behold ; notwithstanding, I say, these
natural disadvantages, the Divine Greatness shows itself in you
after a very wonderful manner. In you are seen the mighty
mysteries of an infinite goodness. The Holy Scriptures have
always made use of you as the types and shadows of some
profound sacrament. Do you think that without a mystery the
first present that God Almighty made to man was of you?
O ye fishes! Do you think that without a mystery among all
creatures and animals which were appointed for sacrifices, you
only were excepted? O ye fishes! Do you think that our
Saviour Christ, next to the Pascal Lamb, took so much pleasure
in the food of you? O you fishes! do you think it was mere
chance, that when the Redeemer of the world was to pay a
tribute to Cesar he thought fit to find it in the mouth of a fish?
These are all of them so great mysteries and sacraments, that
oblige you in a more particular manner to the praises of your
Creator. It is from God, my beloved fish, that you have received
being, life, motion, and sense. It is He that has given you, in
compliance with your own natural inclinations, the whole world
of waters for your habitations. It is He that has furnished it
with lodgings, chambers, caverns, grottos, and such magnificent
retirements as are not to be met with in the seats of kings, or in
the palaces of princes. You have the water for your dwelling, a
clear transparent element, brighter than chrystal; you can see
from its deepest bottom everything that passes on its surface.
You have the eyes of a lynx or of an Argus. You are guided by
a secret and unerring principle, delighting in everything that
may be beneficial to you, and avoiding everything that may be
hurtful. You are carried on by a hidden instinct to preserve
yourselves and to propagate your species ; you obey, in all your
actions, works, and motions, the dictates and suggestions of
nature, without repugnancy or contradiction. The colds of
winter and the heats of summer are equally incapable of molesting
you ; a serene or clouded sky are indifferent to you; let the earth
abound in fruits or be cursed with scarcity, it has no influence on
your welfare. You live secure in rain, and thunders, lightnings,
and earthquakes ; you have no concern in the blossoms of spring

32 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

or in the glowings of summer, in the fruits of autumn or the
frosts of winter ; you are not solicitous about the hours or days,
months or years, the variableness of weather or changes of
seasons. In what dreadful majesty, in what wonderful power, in
what amazing providence, did God Almighty distinguish you
among all the species of creatures that perished in the universal
deluge! You only were insensible of the mischief that laid
waste the whole world. All this, as I have already told you, ought
to inspire you with gratitude and praise to the Divine Majesty
that has done so great things for you, granted you such particular
graces and privileges, and heaped upon you such distinguishing
favours ; and since all this you cannot employ your tongues with
praises of your benefactor, and are not provided with words to
express your gratitude, make at least some sign of reverence:
bow yourselves at his name; give some show of gratitude ;
according to the best of your capacities express your thanks in
the most becoming manner you are able, and be not unmindful
of all the benefits that he has bestowed on you.’ ”

He had no sooner done speaking, than, behold a miracle!
The fish, as though they had been endowed with reason,
bowed down their heads with all the marks of profound
humility and devotion, moving their bodies up and down
with a kind of fondness, as approving what had been spoken
by the blessed Father St. Antonio.

The legend adds, that after many heretics who were
present at the miracle had been converted by it, the saint
gave his benediction to the fishes and dismissed them.

Several of the like stories of St. Anthony are repre-
sented about his monument in a basso-relievo.

There is very little indeed in the way of anything on
ichthyological literature to dwell on between the close of
the tenth century and the introduction of printing. It was
a period very barren of all kinds of literature. Blakey
presses into the service of angling literature of this period
Juan Ruiz, a Spaniard, who wrote a poem called The Lattle

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 33

of Mr. Carnal and Mrs. Lent, in 1350, fish and beasts being
represented in an internecine contest, which resulted in the
victory of the former. But this is hardly to our purpose.
A recent writer on angling literature states that the oldest
English treatise on fishery is contained in the Colloquy of
the Saxon A‘lfric; but it is valueless as far as matter is
concerned, though the list of both salt and fresh water fish
is interesting. A record of the different modes of fishing
with worm, fly, torch and spear, night lines, &c., is to be
found in Richard de Fournival’s Latin poem, De Vituld,
supposed to have been written in the thirteenth or fourteenth
century. It existed only in manuscript until 1861, when it
was printed by Aubry. A most interesting old English
poem by Piers of Fulham, supposed to have been written
about the year 1420, contains some very quaint notices
about fish and theircapture. Itis entitled “ Vayne conseytes
of folysche love undyr colour of fyscheng and fowlyng.”
Three or more manuscripts of this poem are in existence.

It opens thus in the version given by Blakey :—

“ A man thath lovith ffisshyng and ffowlyng bothe,
Ofte tyme that lyff shall hym be lothe,
In see in ryver in ponde or in poole,
Off that crafte thowe he knowe the scole,
Thought his nett never so wide streiche,
It happith full ofte hym naught to ketche.”

The author was evidently a good sportsman as times
went, and preferred running to stagnant waters, though in
the former he does not intend to stick to entirely legitimate

angling. He delivers himself on this wise :—

** But in rennyng ryvers that bee commone,
There will I fisshe and taake my fortune
Wyth nettys, and with angle hookys,
And laye weris, and spenteris in narrowe brookys.”

D

34 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

But a still earlier British author in connection with
angling is a Scotch rhymster called Blind Harry, who is
credited with the Poeticw, in which lines a contention about
fishing rights between Sir William Wallace and Lord Percy
is related. The date of the poem is put toward the end
of the fourteenth century. It does not seem to be recog-
nised in the Bzbliotheca Piscatoria. The contention de-
scribed reminds one of the suggested etymology of vzvalry,
from rvzvus, a river; and certainly the constant disputes
about “fishing rights” up to the present day, eg. those
connected with the Thames, which are still sub judice,

favour the suggestion,

CHAP TE Rie

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING, FROM THE
INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND (1474
A.D.) TO THE TIME OF IZAAK WALTON.

THE first printed book connected with the literature of
fishing claims England as its nationality, and an English
lady as its author. It is known as the Book of Sz.
Albans, and was written (or perhaps it might be more
correct to say “edited”) by Dame Juliana Berners (or
Barnes), or, as some call her, Dame Julyans, and even plain
“Mrs. Barnes,” who is generally believed to have been the
Prioress of Sopwell, near St. Albans. Some ruins of this
still remain, and can easily be visited by anglers who, like
the writer, have the privilege of whipping the Ver, below
the city, whose ancient name of Verulamium is still per-
petuated by this pretty trout-stream. The Look of Sz.
Albans is supposed to have been written early in the
fifteenth century, but the first edition of it, which comprises
discourses on hawking and hunting and “other commend-
able treatyses,” and was printed by the “schoolmaster-
printer” of St. Albans in 1486, contains nothing about
fishing. The next edition was printed by the famous
printer at Westminster, Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496, and in
this appears, as an addition to the others, a Treatyse of
Sysshynge. Whether the good and learned Dame was an
angler herself, or whether she ought to receive the full
credit of originality for her treatise on angling (a fact which

D 2

36 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

may seriously be called in question, judging at least from
an old MS. of much earlier date in the Denison collection),
we will not now discuss. Certain it is that she wished to
encourage the art of angling to be raised in public estima-
tion, as the following paragraph appended to her discourse

shows :—

“ 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 emprynted allone by itself, and put in a lytyll paunflet ;
therefore I haue compylyd it in a greter volume of dyuerse bokys
concernynge 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.”

However, the good Prioress herself, or some one with or
without her consent—the law of “ copyright” then being as
little understood or observed as it is now—republished the
treatise in a separate form in the same year, entitling it
The Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle. It was. “Im-
printed at London, by Wynkyn de Worde, dwellynge in
Flete-street, at the sygne of the Sonne,” and must have
appeared very soon after the second edition of the Book of
St. Albans in 1496. Here, then, we have the first printed
volume of our angling literature ; and only one copy of it
is known to be in existence, though many MS. copies of it
are to be found in the greater libraries, and at least ten
printed editions of it appeared before the year 1600. One
of the best fac-similes of the treatise, from the second
edition of the Book of St. Albans of 1496, is that produced
by Mr. Elliot Stock (Paternoster Row), in 1880, with a most
interesting preface by the Rev. M. G. Watkins. This, like
many other reprints of old books, which are one of the

literary fashions of the day, is likely soon to become very

AUTHORS .ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 37

difficult to obtain, only a limited number of copies having
been printed. The editions of the combined treatises of
Dame Juliana Berners have been numerous. Mr. Stock has
also reproduced in fac-simile the whole of the original Book
of 1486.

Looking to the contents of the 7reatyse of Fysshynge
itself, admirers of old authors on the gentle craft can
hardly be enthusiastic in its praise as a literary production,
nor can modern anglers derive any useful knowledge from
it. It is rather as a literary curiosity than as a book of
practical value that it must be regarded, as the following
extracts, which perhaps had better be given in the more
modern English of later editions, will show. The Dame
introduces her subject in this strain :—

“Solomon in his parables saith that a good spirit maketh a
flowering age, that is, a fair age andalong. And sith it is so: I
ask this question which be the means and the causes that induce
a man into a merry spirit? Truly to my best discretion, it
seemeth good disports and honest ‘games in whom a man joyeth
without any repentance after. Then followeth it that good
disports and honest games be cause of man’s fair age and long
life. And, therefore, now will I choose of four good disports and
honest games, that is to wit: of hunting, hawking, fishing, and

fowling.”

She has no hesitation in saying, “ The best to my simple
discretion which is fishing, called angling with a rod, and a
line, and a hook,” and then she goes on to contrast it with

various other sports :—

' “ Funting as to my intent is too laborious, for the hunter must
always run and follow his hounds travelling and sweating full sore ;
he bloweth till his lips blister; and when he weneth it be a hare,
full oft it is a hedge-hog. Thus he chaseth and wots not what.
He cometh home at even, rain-beaten, pricked, and his clothes
torn, wet shod, all miry, some hound lost, some surbat. Such

38 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

griefs and many other happeneth unto the hunter, which for dis-
pleasance of them that love it I dare not report. Thus truly me
seemeth that this is not the best disport and game of the said
four. The disport and game of hawking is laborious and noisome
also as me seemeth; for often the falconer loseth his hawks, as
the hunter his hounds, then is his game and his disport gone ;
full often crieth he and whistleth till that he be right evil athirst.
His hawk taketh a bow and list not once on him reward; when
he would have her for to flee, then will she bathe ; with misfeeding
she shall have the fronce, the eye, the cray, and many other sick-
nesses that bring them to the souse. Thus by proof this is not
the best game and disport of the said four. The disport and
game of fowling me seemeth most simple, for in the winter
season the fowler speedeth not, but in the most hardest and
coldest weather ; which is grievous ; for when he would go to his
gins he may not for cold. Many a gin and many a snare he
maketh ; yet sorrily doth he fare; at morn-tide in the dew he is
wet shod unto his tail. Many other such I could tell, but dread
of meagre maketh me for to leave. Thus me seemeth that
hunting and hawking and also fowling be so laborious and
grievous, that none of them may perform nor be very mean that
induce a man to a merry spirit; which is cause of his long life
according unto the said parable of Solomon.”

The quaint passage is worth continuing :—

“Doubtless then followeth it that it must needs be the disport
of fishing with an angle: for all other manner of fishing is also
laborious and grievous; often making folks full wet and cold,
which many times hath been seen cause of great infirmities.
But the angler may have no cold nor no disease, but if he be
causer himself. For he may not lose at the most but a line ora
hook: of which he may have store plenty of his own making as
this simple treatise shall teach him. So then his loss is not
grievous, and other griefs may he not have, saving but if any fish
break away after that he is taken on the hook, or else that he
catch nought: which be not grievous. For if he fail of one, he
may not fail of another, if he doth as this treatise teacheth ; but
if there be nought in the water. And yet at the least he hath his

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 39

wholesome walk and merry at his ease, a sweet air of the sweet
savour of the mead flowers; that maketh him hungry. He
heareth the melodious harmony of fowls. He seeth the young
swans, herons, ducks, coots, and many other fowls with their
broods ; which me seemeth better than all the noise of hounds, the
blast of horns, and the cry of fowls that hunters, falconers, and
fowlers can make. And if the angler take fish, surely there is no
man merrier than he is in his spirit. Also whoso will use the
game of angling, he must rise early, which thing is profitable to
man in this wise, that is to wit, most to the heal of his soul. For
it shall cause him to be holy, and to the heal of his body, for it
shall cause him to be whole. Also to the increase of his goods,
for it shall make him rich. As the old English proverb saith in
this wise, whoso will rise early shall be holy, healthy, and zealous.
Thus have I proved in my intent that the disport and game of
angling is the very mean and cause that induceth a man into a
merry spirit: which after the said parable of Solomon, and the
said doctrine of physic, maketh a flowering age and along. And
therefore to all you that be virtuous, gentle, and free-born, I
write and make this simple treatise, following by which ye may
have the full craft of angling to disport you at your last, to the
intent that your age may the more flower and the more longer to
endure.”

A curious instance of literary plagiarism may be men-
tioned in connection with this passage. That terribly long-
winded but entertaining author, old Burton, of “ melancholy
anatomy,” evidently had it in his eye as well as in his mind

when he wrote—

“‘ Fishing is a kinde of hunting by water, be it with nets, weeles,
baits, angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much pleasure to
some men as dogs or hawks, when they draw their fish upon the
bank,” saith Nic. Henselius, Szlesiographie, cap. 3, speaking of
that extraordinary delight his countrymen took in fishing and
making of pooles. James Dubravius, that Moravian, in his book
De Pisc., telleth how, travelling by the highway-side in Silesia, he
found a nobleman booted up to the groins, wading himself, pulling

40 LITERATURE OF SEA AND: RIVER FISHING.

the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman of them all:
and when some belike objected to him the baseness of his office,
he excused himself, that if other men might hunt hares, why should
not he hunt carpes? Many gentlemen in like sort, with us, will
wade up to the armholes, upon such occasions, and voluntarily
undertake that to satisfie their pleasure, which a poor man fora
good stipend would scare be hired to undergo. Plutarch, in his
book Le Soler. Animal., speaks against all fishing as a filthy, base,
illiberall imployment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it,
nor worth the labour. But he that shall consider the variety of
baits, for all seasons, and pretty devices which our anglers have
invented, peculiar lines, false flies, severall sleights, &c., will say,
that it deserves like commendation, requires as much study and
perspicacity as the rest, and is to be preferred before many of
them ; because hawking and hunting are very laborious, much
riding, and many dangers accompany them; but this is still and
quiet ; and if so be the angler catch no fish, yet he hath a whole-
some walk to the brook side, pleasant shade, by the sweet
silver streams; he hath good air, and sweet smels of fine fresh
meadow flowers; he hears the melodious harmony of birds; he
sees the swans, herns, ducks, water hens, cootes, &c., and many
other fowle with their brood, which he thinketh better than the

noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all the sport that they can
make.”

But to return to our authoress—she is very minute in
her instructions as to baits and tackle, “roddes,”’ and
“harnays” generally, and the “instrumentes” for making
them. Among several curious woodcuts is one of hooks of
eighteen sizes (of something like the “ Limerick” bend),
with thick shanks and beards, which she says are “the

most subtle and hardest craft in the making of your

d

harness ;” and these are her directions for their production,

given (as a specimen) in the old spelling :—

“For smalle fysshe ye shall make your hokes of the smalest
quarell nedlye that -ye can fynd of stele, and in this wise. Ye

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 41

shall put the quarell in a redde charkcole fyre tyll that it be of
the same colour that the fyre is. Thenne take hym out and lete
hym kele, and ye shall fynde hym well alayd [alloyed] for to
fyle. Thenne rayse the berde with your knyfe, and make the
poynt sharpe. Thenne alaye him agayn, for elles he woll breke
in the bendyng. Thenne bende hym lyke to the bende fyguryd
hereafter in example. Whan the hoke is bendyd bete the hynder
ende abrode, and fyle it smothe for fretynge of thylyne. Thenne
put it in the fyre agayn, and yene it an easy redde hete. ‘Thenne
sodaynly quenche it in water, and it will be harde and strong.”

“Good” anglers, who look on “trimmering” as a crime
second only in enormity to wilful murder, and on “ live-
baiting” of any kind as a heinous misdemeanour, will be
shocked to find our piscatory Dame giving directions for

the latter, and adding—

“Tf ye lyst to have a good sporte, thenne tye the corde to a
gose fote, and ye shall have a gode halynge, whether the gose or
the pyke shall have the better.”

The “twelve manere of ympedyments whyche cause a
man to take noo fysshe” enumerated by the Prioress, may
be useful in suggesting excuses which the angler with an
empty creel is always supposed to produce for his want of
success. They are, “1, badly-made harness ; 2, bad baits ;
3, angling at wrong time; 4, fish strayed away; 5, water
thick ; 6, water too cold; 7, wether too hot; 3) 1f it ram;
9, if hail or snow fall; 10, if there be a tempest; 11, if
there be a great wynd; 12, if wind be east.”

Our authoress concludes her treatise by giving all kinds
of good advice. To rich anglers she says, “fish not in no
poor man’s water,” and “break no man’s gins.” To all,
“break no man’s hedges,” and “open no man’s gates, but
that ye shut them again.” Anglers are to “use this foresaid

crafty disport for no covetousness,” but for “solace” and

42 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

health to both body and soul; not to take too many persons
in their company, so that they may “not be let of their
game” or prevented “serving God devoutly in saying
affectuously their customable prayer ;” and, lastly, they
are not to be “too ravenous in taking game,” or “to take
too much at one time,” which they “might lightly do, if in
every point they do as this present treatise showeth them.”
With a final injunction to anglers, that they “nourish the
game,” and “destroy all such things as be devourers of it,”
she assures them that “if they do after this rule they shall
have the blessing of God and St. Peter.”

Whether “Mrs. Barnes” is entitled to the appellation of
the “Diana of the English,” and “this Rosa Bonheur of
medizval literature,” with which Mr. Adams, in one of the
Fisheries Handbooks, compliments her, though perhaps
somewhat ironically, readers of the 7veatyse must decide
for themselves. They will certainly find in its quaint pages
an ample fund of amusement.

But though the introduction of printing on the Continent,
and the appearance of an English book on angling only a
little more than twenty years after Caxton set up his
printing press in Westminster, might have been thought
likely to have soon called forth an abundance of piscatory
literature, this was hardly the case. Among foreign
authors of the sixteenth century on fish and fishing we
find Dubravius, Bishop of Olmutz, who wrote on fish and
fishponds in 1552; Heresbach, who, in 1594, published his
four books on Rustic Occupations, one of which, on fishing,
has been translated by Mr. Westwood in the Angler's Note
Book of 1880; and others who followed much in their line.
' The names of Sannazarius the Italian poet, Olaus Magnus
Archbishop of Upsala, Salviani, Ongaro, and Villifranci

occur to the bibliographer; also those of Gesner and

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 43

Rondeletius ; and later on in the seventeenth century
(without paying due regard to chronological order) those
of Du Bartas, Du Cange, Cats of Amsterdam, Aldrovandri,
and Giannettasius. Several of the above, as readers of
Izaak Walton remember, are frequently quoted by him,
but the works of most of them will not repay study, being
the products of a period singularly deficient in knowledge
and the gift of scientific observation ; while the poetical
writers among them seldom rise above mediocrity. As a
whole they have but little interest for English readers,
whether anglers or otherwise ; while in some cases they
can hardly be considered as contributors to piscatorial
literature at all, though they have been claimed as such by
some bibliographers. Several of them find no place in the
Bibliotheca Piscatoria.

We are naturally much more interested in the works of
English writers, and with these it may be presumed that
this little volume was intended to have most to do. How-
ever much our literary Prioress of Sopwell may have
stimulated the practice of angling, she does not appear, as
far as we know, to have stimulated angling authorship, It
is not till the year 1590 that we come to another real
angling author, Leonard Mascall, who at that date pub-
lished his Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line, and all
other instruments thereunto belonging, a quaint black-letter
quarto. With the exception of some remarks upon the

”

“preservation of fish in ponds,” and intructions for killing
vermin, piscatorially it is no improvement upon Juliana.
Indeed the portion relating to fish and fishing is mainly
taken, though very clumsily, from the Zveatyse of the
Prioress ; and thus Mascall set an example of literary theft,
which has continued to be a feature of angling literature up

to the present day. A copy of the first edition is in the

44 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

British Museum. In 1596 was published William Gryndall’s
Hawking, Hunting, Fowling, and Fishing ... now newly
collected by W. G. Faulkener ; the “W. G.” being the initials
of the author, and the “Faulkener” a fancy name added
because the volume contained some remarks on “ ¢he maner
and order in keeping of hawkes.” It is little more than a
reproduction of the Book of St. Albans with variations.
Taverner followed in 1600 with Certaine Experiments con-
cerning Fish and Fruite “by him published for the benefit
Of Others.”

The beginning of the seventeenth century introduces us
to a new kind of fishing literature, which has been termed
“Angling Spiritualised.” It is forced and unnatural from
a literary point of view, though in accordance with the
fashion of symbolism in vogue among the Caroline divines.
The “Old Fathers,” in some instances, gave the cue to it,
but many “reverend” authors and preachers who affected
it, approached more than closely the confines of the
ludicrous. We cannot, however, forget the many scriptural
associations with fish and fishing. The first of the divines,
of the period of which we are speaking, to come out
strongly in this line, was Samuel Gardiner, D.D. He
published in 1606 A Booke of Angling or Fishing, “wherein
is showed, by conference with Scriptures, the agreement
between the Fishermen, Fishes, and Fishing, of both
Natures, Temporal and Spirituall .... Mat. iv. 19. I
will make you fishers of men.” The author summarises
the contents of his book in two Latin verses, which he
“delivers in English thus” :—

‘The Church I gouern as a shippe,
Wee seae with world compare,

The Scriptures are the enclosing nettes,
And men the fishers are.”

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 45

The nine chapters (162 pages), of which the book is com-
posed, elaborate the idea with tedious simile and allegory.
‘Hone, in his Year Book gives several extracts from it.
There are only two known copies of the work, the one in the
Bodleian, and the other in Mr. Huth’s collection. A tran-
script, prepared for republication, was made by the Rev.
H. S. Cotton, and is now in the Denison collection. The
author was himself “a lover of the angle.’ In 1609 we
have Dr. Rawlinson’s sermon—Fishermen Fishers of Men—
preached at Mercer’s Chapel. Quaintly enough observes
the worthy doctor :—

“Very likely, that while I thus launch forth into the deepe and
cast my nette upon the face of the waters, it will fare with me
as with other fishermen, who, among many fish, meet with some
carps, and if by chance they alight upon a sturdy jack, there is
great tug betwixt them, whether they shall catch the jack or the
jack them.”

And further on,

“Tt is fabled by the poet (Ovid, Met. iii. 8) that Bacchus began
his empire by the transmutation of mariners into fishes. So doth
Christ, the true Bacchus, bis genitus (God of the substance of
His Father begotten before the world, and Man of the substance
of His Mother, borne in the world), begin His Kingdome, even
the Kingdome of His Gospel, with the metamorphising of men into
fishes, yet doth He not either transubstantiate them into fishes, like
those mariners, or ingulfe them into the bellie of a fish, like Jonas,
or make them fish the one halfe, flesh the other, ike Myrmaides—

‘Ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.’

But herein will He have them to symbolize with fishes, that as
fishes are caught lineis textis, with a net of twisted lines, so must
they be lineis ex Scriptura contextis with the net of God’s Word
made out of lines taken out of the Scripture.”

Several other divines followed in the same groove,

46 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

notably Dr. W. Worship in a sermon entitled Zhe Fesher,
in 1615, and the Rev. Jerome Phillips in one called The
Fisherman, in 1623. Among laymen, the Hon. R. Boyle
was a contributor to it with his Reflections, in 1665. This
edition is rare; but there is a reprint of the book by
Masson, of Oxford (1848). Readers can hardly be re-
commended to trouble themselves about it, except as a
literary curiosity by a seventeenth century moraliser, who,
after his kind, can spin out long strings of commonplace
contemplations on such commonplace subjects as on “ One’s
drinking water out of the brimes of his hat,” and on
“Catching a store of fish at a baited place.” But this
style of literature gradually died out as a better taste
prevailed.

Resuming mention of those who may truly be called
contributors to the literature of fishing, we come to one
who was at first only modestly known by his initials,
J. D. A notable work, of very great interest and literary
merit, is7e Secrets of Angling: teaching the choicest Tooles,
Baytes, and Seasons, for the taking of any fish, in Pond or
River... byJ.D., Esquire. The first edition was published
in 1613, and there are copies of it in the Bodleian Library,
and in the collections of Mr. Denison and Mr. Huth.
It is in the form of a poem in three books, but, though
mention of it anticipates the chapter on English Poets of
the Angles, it must here be introduced, because it may
be fairly considered as a practical treatise on fish and
fishing. Izaak Walton, who quotes from it, attributed it to
“John Davors,” and R. Howlett, in his “Angler’s Sure
Guide” (1706), to Dr. Donne; while it has also been
credited to no less than six different poets of the name of
“Davies”; but its authorship: was finally determined in
1811, by the evidence of the books of the Stationers’

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 47

Company, in which the work was entered in 1612 as being
by “ John Dennys, Esquier.” The author was very probably
the son of Hugh Dennys, who came of an old Gloucester-
shire family, and was grandson of Sir Walter Dennys.
John Dennys died in 1609, and was buried at Puckle-
church; and as Roger Jackson, for whom the poem was
first printed in 1613, states in his dedicatory letter, that it
was “sent to him to be printed after the death of the
author,” who “intended to have printed it in his life,”
there is every presumption that the author is now identi-
fied. There were four editions of the poem printed between
1613 and 1652. Only three ferfect copies of the first
edition are said to be in existence, one in the Bodleian, the
second in the collection of Mr. Denison, and the third in
that of Mr. Huth, from which last Mr. Arber produced his
reprint,in the first volume of the Exglish Garner in 1877.
Of the second edition Mr. Denison has the only copy
known. Itis supposed to have been printed in 1620, but the
date, unfortunately, is cut off. The only copy of the third
edition (1630) is also in Mr. Denison’s collection. There
are some variations in the different editions. On the title
page of the first edition is an allegorical woodcut represent-
ing two men, one treading on a serpent, and with a sphere
at the end of his line, while over his rod, on a label, is the
inscription :—
“ Hold, hooke and line,
Then all is mine.”

The other with a fish on his hook, labelled thus :—

“ Well fayre the pleasure
That brings such treasure.”

The reprint of Ze Secrets, in possession of the writer, is by
Mr. Thomas Westwood, and was published by W. Satchell

48 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

and Co., of Tavistock Street, only this year. Mr. Westwood
very rightly does not approve of the “emendations” and
“ modernizations ” in the orthography and syntax made by
Mr. Arber in the reprint above mentioned, considering that
they “rob the verse of much of its ancient air and aspect.”
He therefore gives us a “strictly faithful and literal tran-

b

script of the edition of 1613 ;” and this is certainly the
reprint of which anglers and lovers of old literature should
possess themselves. The length of the poem in this reprint
runs to nearly forty pages of four stanzas each. It is
“excellently well” done.

Ard now let us look into the poem itself. J. D.’s
work has probably met with more general commendation
from critics than any work connected with angling (hardly
excepting the Complete Angler) in the whole range of
literature. Beloe, in his “Anecdotes of Literature and
Scarce Books,” says of it that “perhaps there does not
exist in the circle of English literature a rarer volume :”
and Dr. Badham (attributing it, like Walton, to “ Davors”)
calls it an “elaborately beautiful poem ;” while in his
preface to Stock’s reproduction of Dame Berners, the
Rev. M. G. Watkins holds that J. D.’s “verses have,
perhaps, never been surpassed.” J. D. was a poet as well
as an angler born, and after Walton’s immortal work, no
higher compliment has ever been paid to the sport of
angling. The poem contains much point, elevation of
thought and sweetness, and subtlety of rhythm, as well
as subtlety of diction in handling what, in itself, may
be considered a prosaic subject, when mere instructions in
in the art of angling are attempted in verse. It is replete
also with apt classical allusions. To give a just idea of
its scope and nature, perhaps it would be well to present
the author’s table of—

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 49

CONTENTS.
THE Frrst BooKE CONTAINETH THESE THREE HEADS.

(1) The Antiquitie of Angling, with the Art of Fishing, and of
Fish in Generall.

(2) The Lawfulnesse, Pleasure, and Profit Thereof, with all
Objections Answered, Against it.

-(3) To Know the Season, and Times to Provide the Tooles, and
How to Choose the Best, and the Manner How to Make
Them Fit to Take Each Severall Fish.

Tue SECOND BooKE CONTAINETH

(1) The Angler’s Experience, How to Use His Tooles and Baytes,
to Make Profit by His Game.

(2) What Fish is not Taken with Angle and What Is, and Which
is Best for Health.

(3) In What Waters and Rivers to Finde Each Fish.

THE Tuirp BooKE CONTAINETH

(1) The Twelve Virtues and Qualities Which Ought to be in
Every Angler.

(2) What Weather, Seasons, and Times of Yeere is Best and
Worst, and What Houres of the Day is Best for Sport.

(3) To Know Each Fishes Haunt, and the Times to Take Them.
Also an Obscure Secret of an Approved Bait Tending
Thereunto.—D.

It is no easy task to select passages for quotation from a
work of equal merit throughout, but the following will give
a fair idea of it to those who have never perused the whole.
After comparing the joys of angling with the distractions
and excitements of town life and its pleasures, he ‘“ counts
it better pleasure to behold ”—

“The hills and Mountaines raised from the Plaines,
The plaines extended leuell with the ground,

The ground deuided into sundry vaines,
The vaines inclos’d with running riuers rounde,

50 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

The riuers making way through nature’s chaine,
With headlong course into the sea profounde :
The surging sea beneath the valleys low,
The valleys sweet, and lakes that louely flowe.

“ The lofty woods, the forrests wide and long,

Adorn’d with leaues and branches fresh and greene,
In whose coole bow’rs the birds with chaunting song,
Doe welcome with thin quire the Szzer’s Queene,
The meadowes faire where /Vora’s guifts among,
Are intermixt the verdant grasse betweene,

The siluer skaled fish that softlie swimme

Within the brookes and Cristall watry brimme.”

“All these, and many more of his creation,
That made the heauens, the AzgZer oft doth see,
And takes therein no little delectation,
To think how strange and wonderfull they be,
Framing thereof an inward contemplation,
To set his thoughts from other fancies free,
And whiles he lookes on these with joyfull eye,
His mind is rapt aboue the starry skye.”

reminding us of Walton’s lines, when he sings of the
angler as one—
“‘Who with his angle and his books
Can think the longest day well spent ;
And praises God when back he looks,

And finds that all was innocent.”
and of what was said of Walton, that he “made angling a
medium for: inculcating the most fervent piety and the
purest morality.”

Towards the close of the first book, after dwelling on the
antiquity of angling, in which the rude implements of
primitive man are described—the rod a bough torn from a
tree, and hooks of hardwood thorns—he thus describes the
progress of the art :—

“In this rude sorte began this simple Art,
And so remained in that first age of old,
When Saturne did Amalthea’s horne impart
Vnto the world, that then was all of gold ;

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 51

The fish as yet had felt but little smart,

And were to bite more eager, apt, and bold ;
And plenty still supplide the place againe
Of woefull want whereof we now complaine.

“But when in time the feare and dread of man

Fell more and more on every liuing thing,

And all the creatures of the world began

To stand in awe of this vsurping king,

Whose tyranny so farre extended than

That Earth and Seas it did in thraldome bring ;
It was a work of greater paine and skill,
The wary Fish in lake or Brooke to kill.

“ So, worse and worse, two ages more did passe,

Yet still this Art more perfect daily grew,

For then the slender Rod invented was,

Of finer sort than former ages knew,

And Hookes were made of siluer and of brasse,

And Lines of Hemp and Flaxe were framed new,
And sundry baites experience found out more,
Than elder times did know or try before.

“ But at the last the Iron age drew neere,
Of all the rest the hardest, and most scant,
Then lines were made of Silke and subtile hayre,
And Rods of lightest Cane and hazell plant,
And Hookes of hardest steele inuented were,
That neither skill nor workemanship did want.
And so this Art did in the end attaine
Vnto that state where now it doth remaine.”

thus showing that even in his time fish were becoming less
plentiful, and gradually more “educated.” He is more
particular about his hooks than Dame Juliana aforesaid.

“That Hook I loue that is in compass round,
Like to the print that Pegasus did make
With horned hoofe upon 7%essadian ground ;
From whence forthwith Parzassus’ spring outbrake,
That doth in pleasant waters so abound,
And of the AZzses oft the thirst doth slake.”

52 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

This rather suggests the “Pennell” bend of hook,
though perhaps the “angle of impact” would be a little
too “indirect” to suit the theory of the learned angler and
“ancologist,” Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell. Further, ac-
cording to J. D., these are the qualities of a good hook :—

“His Shank should neither be too short nor long ;

His point not ouer sharp nor yet too dull ;

The substance good that may endure from wrong ;

His Needle slender, yet both round and full,

Made of the right /derzanx metal strong,

That will not stretch or break at every pull ;
Wrought smooth and clean without one crack or knot,
And bearded like the wilde Avadzan goat.”

Nor does J. D. forget to give instructions, and very
sensible ones too, even as to the garb of the angler, though
he did not live in the “Cording” age :—

“‘ And let your garments Russet be or gray,

Of colour darke, and hardest to descry :

That with the Raine or weather will away,

And least offend the fearfull Fishes eye :

For neither Skarlet nor rich cloth of ray

Nor colours dipt in fresh Assyrzaz dye,
Nor tender silkes, of Purple, Paule, or golde,
Will serue so well to keep off wet or cold.”

His descriptions of the various baits to be used by
anglers, and instructions in fishing for various fish, will in
many instances hold good in the present day. Here is a
picture of an angler “dibbing,” or “dapping,” for chub,
trout, &c. :—

“See where another hides himselfe as slye,

As did Acteon or the fearefull. Deere ;

Behinde a withy, and with watchfull eye

Attends the bit within the water cleere,

And on the top thereof doth moue his flye,

With skilfull hand, as if he huing were. _
Soe how the Chué, the Roche, the Dace, and Trout,
To catch thereat doe gaze and swimme about.

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 53

“ His Rod, or Cane, made darke for being seene,
The lesse to feare the warie Fishe withall :
The Line well twisted is, and wryught so cleane
That being strong, yet doth it shew but small,
His Hooke not great, nor little, but betweene,
That light vpon the watry brimme may fall,

The Line in length scant halfe the Rod exceedes,

And neither Corke, no Leade thereon it needes.”

His description of gudgeon-fishing also stands now, if
we only substitute a “Thames punt” for the “little boate,”
and for a “pole” the “small-tooth combe,” as the Thames

professionals call the “ gudgeon-rake.”

* Loe, in a little Boate where one doth stand
That to a Willow Bough the while is tide,
And with a pole doth stirre and raise the sand ;
Where as the gentle streame doth softly glide,
And then with slender Line and Rod in hand,
The eager bit not long he doth abide.
Well Leaded is his Line, his Hooke but small,
A good big Corke to beare the stream withall.

** His baite the least red worme that may be found
And at the bottome it doth alwayes lye ;
Whereat the greedy Goodgzon bites so sound
That Hook and all he swalloweth by and by :
See how he strikes, and puls them vp as round
As if new store the play did still supply.

And when the bit doth dye or bad doth proue
Then to another place he doth remoue.

“ This fish the fitted for a learner is

That in the Art delights to take some paine ;

For as high flying Haukes that often misse

The swifter foules, are eased with a traine,

So to a young beginner yeeldeth this,

Such readie sport as makes him proue again
And leads him on with hope and glad desire,
To greater skill, and cunning to aspire.”

It is curious to notice the variations from the first edition

54 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

of J. D., which Walton has in his quotation of six stanzas
in the first edition of the Complete Angler (1653). All four
editions of The Secrets had appeared before Walton’s book,
and it is difficult to say from which he quoted, or whether
some part was quoted from memory; and the writer can-
not, without reference, which would be avery difficult
matter, state what variations occur in the editions them-
selves. But his idea is that Walton made the alterations
“on his own hook,” so to speak, and more particularly in
the first stanza quoted. In the Westwood reprint of J. D.
it reads thus :-—

“*O let me rather on the pleasant Brinke

Of Zyne and Trent possesse some dwelling place ;

Where I may see my Quill and Corke down sinke,

With eager bit of Bardzll, Bleike, or Dace:

An on the World and his Creator thinke,

While they proud 7azs painted sheat imbrace.
And with the fume of strong Zodacco’s smoke,
All quaffing round are ready for to choke.”

In Walton’s version it runs :-—

“ Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink
Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling place;
Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink
With eager bite of Perch, or Bleak, or Dace ;
And on the world and my Creator think :
Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t’ embrace ;
And others spend their time in base excess
Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness.”

In addition to the other “variations,” it will be seen that
the three last lines of Walton’s stanza are entirely substi-
tuted for those of J. D.; and as old Izaak was fond of his
pipe, like the majority of “good” anglers, it is almost
impossible to escape the conclusion that he deliberately

made the substitution, because he would not help to

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING.” 55

perpetuate what he considered an implied libel on the
“divine herb.”

The next piscatorial author to be mentioned is Gervase
Markham, whose various works, and editions of them, are
so various and complicated that no less than four and a
half pages are devoted to them in the “ Bibliotheca Pisca-
toria.” All of them contain more or less of disquisitions
on fish and fishing, combined with “Res rustice.” His
first work was published in 1613, the year of the Ist
Edition of J. D., and was entitled The English Husband-
man, in “two bookes.” But the first book, and also the
second part of the second book, were sold separately. It
is in this second part, dated 1614, and known as Zhe
Pleasures of Princes ; Goodman's Recreations, that we find
“a discourse on the general art of fishing with an angle,
&c.,” which is evidently a prose version of J. D.’s Secrets,
or, as Mr. Westwood calls it, “a transmigration,” adding
that “the transmuting process was effected by no unskil-
ful hand, and without too much sacrifice of the precious
metal of the original,” a compliment which very few such
experiments deserve. “This small Treatise in Rime, now,
for the better understanding of the reader, put into prose,”
as Markham speaks of it in his Country Contentments, &c.
(6th Ed., 1649), is interesting as a contemporary reeogni-
tion, and the only one, of J. D. It would answer no good
purpose to enumerate the many productions of Markham,
extending as they did, down to the year 1707. One in
the possession of the writer, entitled A Way to Get Wealth
(1653), has already been mentioned in Chapter I., and its
further title, “Containing six principall Vocations or Call-
ings in which every good Husband or Housewife may
lawfully employ themselves,” suggests the kind of Olla

Podrida volumes produced by our author. It contains

56 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

descriptions of, and instructions on, almost every conceiv-
able country business and recreation, dissertations on
physic, chyrurgery, cookery, brewing, horticulture, book-
keeping, distilling, “ordering of feasts,” the enrichment of
the Weald in Kent—cum multis aliis que nune describere
longum est.

It is very probable that Markham received some ex-
traneous help in the composition of some of his treatises ;
but presuming them to be his own productions, let us take

one or two specimens of his style. For example—

‘“‘Since Pleasure is a Rapture, or power in this last Age, stolne
into the hearts of men, and there lodged up with such a carefull
guard and attendance, that nothing is more supreme, or ruleth
with greater strength in their affections, and since all are now
become the sounes of Pleasure, and every good is measured by
the delight it produceth ; what worke unto men can be more
thankfull then the Discourse of that pleasure which is most comely,
most honest, and giveth the most liberty to Divine Meditation ?
And that without all question is the Art of Angling, which having
ever bin most hurtlessly necessary, hath bin the Sport or Recrea-
tion of God’s Saints, of most holy Fathers, and of many worthy
and Reverend Divines, both dead, and at this time breathing.”

Our author's ideal of an angler is a very high one. He
must be, to use a common expression, a superlatively

“ood all-round man’’—ad omnia paratus.

“‘ A skilfull Angler ought to be a generall scholler, and seene in
all the liberall sciences. as a grammarian, to know how either to
write or discourse of his art in true and fitting termes, either
without affectation or rudeness. Hee should have sweetness of
speech to perswade and intice others to delight in an exercise
so much laudable. Hee should have strength of arguments to
defend and maintaine his profession against envy or slander.
Hee should have knowledge in the sunne, moone, and starres,
that by their aspects hee may guesse the seasonableness, or

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 57

unseasonableness of the weather, the breeding of the stormes,
and from what coasts the winds are ever delivered.

“Hee should be a good knower of countries, and well used to
high wayes, that by taking the readiest pathes to every lake,
brook, or river, his journies may be more certaine and lesse
wearisome. Hee should have knowledge of proportions of all
sorts, whether circular, square, or diametricale, that when hee
shall be questioned of his diurnal progresses, he may give a
geographical description of the angles and channels of rivers,
how they fall from their heads, and what compasses they fetch
in their several windings. He must also have the perfect art of
numbering, that in the sounding of lakes or rivers, hee may know
how many foot or inches each severally contayneth, and by
adding, substracting, or multiplying the same, hee may yie'd the
reason of every river’s swift or slow current. Hee should not be
unskillfull in musick, that whensoever either melancholy, heavi-
nesse of his thought, or the perturbation of his owne fancies,
stirreth up sadnesse in him, he may remove the same with some
godly hymne or antheme, of which David gives him ample
examples,

“‘Hee must then be full of humble thoughts, not disdaining,
when occasion commands, to kneele, lye down, or wet his feet or
fingers, as oft as there is any advantage given thereby unto the
gaining the end of his labour. ‘Then hee must be strong and
valiant, neither to be amazed with stormes nor affrighted with
thunder, but to hold them according to their natural causes and
the pleasure of the Highest: neither must he like the foxe which
preyeth upon lambs, imploy all his labour against the smallest
frie, but, like the lyon, that seazeth elephants, thinke the greatest
fish which swimmeth a reward little enough for the paines which
he endureth. Then must he be prudent, that apprehending the
reasons why the fish will not bite, and all other casuall im-
pediments which hinder his sport, and knowing the remedies
for the same, he may direct his labours to be without trouble-

somenesse.”’

But here we had better say farewell to Gervase Mark-

ham, lest angling readers should feel too proud in con-

58 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

templating the picture painted of them, or too desponding
at the thought of how far they fall below the high standard
set before them.

In 1614 also was published A Fewel for Gentrie, shortly
described in the Bibliotheca Piscatoria as “a repetition of
the book of St. Alban, somewhat methodised and polished.”
And now we pass on to an important work published
shortly before the appearance of Walton’s Complete Angler.
This is Thomas Barker’s Art of Angling, wherein are dis-
covered many rare secrets very necessary to be known by all
that delight in that recreation. It was published in 1651,
z.@. two years before Walton’s book, and another edition
appeared, without the author’s name, in 1653, z.2 the same
year as Walton’s. In 1657 the work appeared with the
additional title of Barkers Delight prefixed, and by this
name it is generally known, though on the title-page it is
termed “the second edition,” z.¢ of the drt of Angling, of
which it is an enlargement. Another edition was published
in 1659, and there have been “ Reprints” of this and the
editions of 1651 and 1653, but both these and the originals
are rare. Barker's Delight, having been called by himself
“The Second Edition,” has led to much confusion, and
bibliographers, in dealing with him, unfortunately per-
petuated this by speaking of the different editions without
sufficient indications whether they are referring to the
original Art of Angling or the Delight, and even in the
Bibliotheca Piscatoria the reader gets sorely puzzled.
Barker seems to have been a chef, as he says in his
Delight :—“1 have been admitted into the most Ambas-
sadors that have come to England this forty years, and do
wait on them still at the Lord Protector’s charge, and I am
duly paid for it.’ This statement, however, does not

necessarily imply that he was an actual cook, though his

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 59

many directions about the cookery of fish show him well
versed in the mageiric art, and he also states that he takes
as much pleasure in the “dressing of fish as in the taking
of them.” Barker also tells us that he was no scholar ;—“ I
doe crave pardon for not writing Scholler like,” and only
professes to give the result of his own “experience and
practice.” The Delight of 1659 was dedicated to “The
Right Honourable Edward Lord Montague, Generall of
the Navy, and one of the Lords Commissioners of the
Treasury,” and in the “ Author’s Epistle” he throws down
this chivalrous challenge :-—

“Tam now grown old... . Ihave written no more but my
own experience and practice... . If any noble or gentle angler,
of what degree soever he be, have a mind to discourse of any ot
these wayes and experiments, I live in Henry the 7th’s Gifts, the
next door to the Gatehouse in Westm. My name is Barker,
where I shall be ready, as long as please God, to satisfie them,
and maintain my art, during life, which is not like to be
long.”

No doubt if old Barker were now in the flesh, he would
be to the fore in “Angling Sweepstakes,” and ready to
dispute with any one for a wager the title of “Champion
Roach-fisher,” which is affected by modern adepts in
this art.

Some idea of Barker’s quaintness of style may be
gathered from the following passage, with which the body

of the work begins ;—

“Noble Lord, under favour, I will compliment and put a case
to your Honour. I met with a man, and upon our discourse, he
fell out with me, having a good weapon but neither stomach nor
skill: I say this man may come home by Weeping Cross, I will
cause the clerk to toll his knell. It is the very like case to the
gentleman angler that goeth to the river for his pleasure: this

60 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

angler hath neither judgment nor experience, he may come home
light-laden at his leisure.”

To Barker must be given the credit, or rather discredit,
of discovering and counselling the use of salmon-roe as a
bait. He says :—

“I have found an experience of late, which you may angle
with, and take great store of fish... . The bait is the roe of a
salmon, or trout, if it be a large trout, that the spawnes be any-
thing great. If I had but known it twenty years ago, I would
have gained a hundred pounds, onely with this bait. I am bound
in duty to divulge it to your Honour, and not to carry it to my
grave with me. The greedy angler will murmur at me, but for
that I care not.”

Following, too, in the wake of Dame Juliana Berners,
SS) ’
he recommends the “goose-trimmer ”—

“The principal sport to take a pike is to take a goose or
gander, or duck: take one of the pike lines, tie the line under
the left wing, and over the right wing, about the body, as a man
weareth his belt; turn the goose off into the pond where the
pikes are; there is no doubt of sport, with great pleasure, betwixt
the goose and the pike ; it is the greatest sport and pleasure that
a noble gentleman in Shropshire doth give his friends entertain-
ment with.”

Barker brings us to what may be called the Waltonian
era, which will be dealt with in the next chapter; and it
must be confessed that, from a purely critical point of
view, our fishing literature of the period just traversed
cannot be held in very high estimation. A good deal of
it is interesting enough for its originality and quaintness,
and also for the insight it gives us into the art of fishing
as practised by our forefathers, and the “engines” and
baits they used in prae-Waltonian times ; and, it may almost

be added, for its evidence of rank plagiarism among

AUTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 61

many authors. It has its interest, too, and value from a
bibliographical standpoint. But beyond this, little can be
said in its praise. Allowance, however, must be made, in
consideration of “the state of learning” during many
generations after the introduction of printing, and of the
somewhat limited range of the subject treated of by pisca-
torial authors, Doubtless among those of the period we
have been surveying, J. D. stands out as the “bright

particular star” —velut inter ignes luna minores.

CONE TER] TV;

IZAAK WALTCN—HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS
TO END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

THE very mention of the name—clarum et venerabile—of
Izaak Walton in connection with the literature of angling,
suggests a task of far greater magnitude than can be here
accomplished, especially as the notices of authors before
his time have stretched to far greater length than was
anticipated, and those after him have yet to be dealt with.
Indeed a volume of no slight dimensions would be required
to do justice to Walton and his book ; and even a biblio-
graphical record of the various phases and mutations of
the Complete Angler as Mr. Westwood has shown in his
“Chronicle of Izaak Walton” (1864), affords subject matter
for a volume in itseif, and yet be unexhausted. This will
be even better understood when it is mentioned that the
fifty-three editions cnronicled by Mr. Westwood in his
volume just mentioned have been increased to ninety by
himself and his coadjutor Mr. Satchell, and that their
enumeration, with short bibliographical notes on some of
them, takes up no less than twenty pages in the Azbhotheca
Piscatoria. A new edition of the “ Chronicle ” is now in the
press, with notes and additions, by T. Satchell.

Let us glance at a few of the chief of these “ Waltons.”
The first edition of the Complete Angler was published
in 1653, and it was duly advertised by “the enterpris-
ing publisher” of the period. The announcement ran in

IZAAK WALTON. 63

The Perfect Diurnall from the oth to the 16th of May,
1653, thus :-—

met hie Compleat Angler, or the
Contemplative Man’s_ Recreation, being
a discourse of Fish and Fishing, not
unworthy the perusal of most Anglers,
Of 18 pence price. Written by IZ Was... --
printed for Richard Marriot,
to be sold at his Shop “in Saint
Dunstan’s Churchyard. Fleet Street.”

It was similarly advertised in the Mercurius Politicus
from the 19th to the 26th of May.

There was no indication of the name of the author on
the title-page, and he only signs himself Iz. Wa. at the
foot of the “ Letter of Dedication ” to John Offley, and of the
“Address to the Reader.” The first sentence, ending with
“ Recreation,” of the title was engraved on a scroll, which
has “classic” dolphins above and below, with a string of
fish pendent on either side, and the whole resting on a
shell. It is a curious fact that the word “ Compleat” which
appears on the scroll is printed “Complete” on all the
pages of the book, and since then the word seems to have
been printed indiscriminately in either form, according to
the fancy of Walton’s editors, though most editions have
“Compete.” On the title-page also appeared the text—
“Simon Peter said, I go a fishing ; and they said, we also

”

will go with thee. John 21, 3.” A well preserved and
perfect copy of this edition is now worth about £50, and
perhaps more, and he who obtains one becomes in his way
as much of a hero as the owner of a winner of the Derby,
or the capturer of the largest salmon or Thames trout of

the season. The second edition, published in 1655, was

64 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

“much enlarged,” indeed almost rewritten by the author ;
commendatory verses by seven writers are for the first
time inserted; a third interlocutor in the person of
Auceps is introduced; and Venator is substituted for
Viator. It has been surmised that these characters
were suggested to Walton by the work of Heresbach,
mentioned in the last chapter. The third and fourth
editions appeared in 1661 and 1668, corrected and en-
larged, but not to the same extent as that of 1655. We
now come to the fifth and very important edition, from
the fact that it was the last in which Walton had a hand,
or which was published in his lifetime. It appeared in
1676. Seven years later, and the old man laid down his
pen as he had already laid aside his rod, and full of years
and honours was gathered to his rest. This edition was in
three parts, which, as indicated on the title-page, might
“be bound together or sold each of them severally.” The
first part was Walton’s own Complete Angler ; the second
consisted of Justructions how to Angle for a Trout or
Grayling in a Clear Stream, written at the request of
Walton by his intimate friend, and brother angler Charles
Cotton, of Beresford; and the third, The Experienced
Angler, by Colonel Robert Venables. The whole were
comprised under the title of Ze Universal Angler. These
five editions together not very long ago realised over £100,
but this is probably a little above their market value.
Except on the supposition that Walton’s work for
an interval lacked appreciation, or that the sport of
angling did not increase in popularity, it is difficult
to account for the great gap between the fifth edition of
1657 and the sixth, which did not make its appearance till
1750. This last was the work of the Rev. Moses Browne,
the author of Pzscatory Eclogues, to whom we shall refer

IZAAK WALTON. 65

in a later chapter, and claims note from the fact that
its editor had the bad taste, to say the least of it,
to tamper with his author, under the idea that by
pruning, amending, and adding to the original text, he
was adapting it to the supposedly refined taste of the
time. Reverend lovers of old Izaak can only regard
Browne’s work as next door to sacrilege. In 1760 another
editor comes on the stage in the person of Mr. John (after-
wards Sir John) Hawkins. Subsequent editions and
reprints of Hawkins, which number some twenty-five in
all, covering at intervals a period stretching down to 1857,
abound with notes, explanatory, critical, historical, and
biographical, and much useful miscellaneous information.
Moses Browne figures again as a Waltonian editor in 1772,
and some interest attaches to his edition of this year,
because it is said it was undertaken at the suggestion of
Dr. Johnson, who, though ever to be execrated by anglers
for his “worm and fool” libel, was one of the foremost
admirers of the Complete Angler. Major’s first edition was
published in 1823, and was followed by another in 1824, both
being well supplied with copper-plate and wood engravings,
which took the public fancy. The first edition issued by
Mr. Pickering, the publisher, dates in the year 1825, and
was followed by others from the same house, the most
important of which was that of 1835-6, in two grand
imperial octavo volumes. It was edited by Sir Harris
Nicolas, and profusely illustrated by Stothard and Inskipp.
Though open to criticism in some respects, it is a noble
tribute to Walton, and must ever remain one of the
grandest ornaments of an angler’s library. Other editions
of Nicolas have been published, and the last, of 1875, will
be found an excellent book of general reference on all
matters Waltonian. A special feature of the Nicolas
:

66 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

editions is the division of Walton’s dialogues into “Five
Days,” which thus bring out the dramatic character of the
work. In Walton’s first edition, though it is divided by
the author into thirteen chapters, the dialogue evidently
occupies five separate days, and “spaces” in the printing
show where the conversation ends on each night. Major’s
fourth edition was published in 1844, and of it Mr. West-
wood, in his Chronicle, says that “it approaches more nearly
to our ideal of an edition consistent in all its parts than any
of its predecessors or successors.” The Rev. Dr. Bethune,
an American, speaking of the illustrations in it, says, “ Art
could scarcely go further, and no more elegant volume
could find a place in a library.” Dr. Bethune is no mean
judge, for he also has entered the lists as an editor of
Walton, and is one of the most ardent admirers of the
Complete Angler beyond the great ocean. His first edition
was published in New York in 1847, and contains almost
all one would seek to know about Walton and his work,
and much interesting matter of all kinds, including papers
on American fishing, and a very extensive catalogue of
works on angling. It is well worthy of the commendation
awarded to it by Mr. Westwood, when he says that
“nowhere else do we find united so complete a body of
angling-book statistics, and so large an accumulation of
collateral data.” Dr. Bethune’s second edition appeared
in 1880, with some additions and corrections. No angler’s
library should be without a Bethune. The editions by
“Ephemera” (Edward Fitzgibbon) are well known; the
first appeared in 1853, and the last in 1878. Christopher
Davies, whose admirable work on the East Anglian broads
and rivers has just been published, is among the recent
editors of Walton, his volume being dated 1878. The
very last Complete Angler, published only two or three

IZAAK WALTON. 67

months ago, and consequently not included in the Lzblio-
theca, is another “ Major,” from the firm of Nimmo & Bain
(King William Street, W.C.). It is most beautifully printed,
handsomely bound, and profusely illustrated by masters
of the limning art, two impressions of each of eight original
etchings being, the one on Japanese, and the other on
Whatman paper. This edition will hold its own among
the best. Only 500 copies were printed, and it is now very
difficult to obtain one.

The lovers and admirers of Walton, anglers and literary
men who know their Complete Angler well, its associations
and history, and have the privilege, if only occasionally, of
spending pleasant hours in a Waltonian library, can readily
sympathise with the words and feelings of Mr. Westwood,
when on the completion of his “ Chronicle,” on which he
had so long and lovingly laboured, he says :—

“ Here our task ends—the ultimate milestone on the long road
of more than two hundred years being reached at last. Through
our window, as we write these closing lines, streams cheerily (and
with a skimmer of young leaves and buzzing of insect wings), the
May sunshine—that sunshine that, of yore, gladdened Piscator on
his way through the Leaside meadows to his sport at matin-song,
and that broods, we are fain to believe, with a softened radiance
now, on his honoured grave in the grey pile of Winchester. Peace
be to his ashes!—for his fame we have no fear; the bygone
centuries have given their consecration to his work, the centuries
to come will ratify that consecration anew. How much of good
and great the future may have in store for it, it is not our province
to predict. Suffice it that looking up to the shelves of our
Angling Library, and to the /7/ty-three several editions chronicled
in these pages, we must say already for the Father of Fishermen,
what he were too modest to say for himself could he return

amongst us—
“Si monumentum requiris
Circumspice !”

68 TATERATORE (OF SEA AND RIVER FISTING:

But though the time and treasure expended on these
many editions have raised a mighty monument to the fame
of Walton—ere perennius—still it may be questioned
whether a further multiplication of them would answer any
good purpose, unless an edition has got something really
new and important to contribute to “Waltonology.” It
seems unreasonable that authors should merely edit a
Walton, as some seem to have done, for the sole purpose
of overloading it with notes—more suitable for digestion
into the form of an “ Angler's Manual.” Perhaps to some
the raison @ étre of an edition of the Complete Angler may
be the alleged fact that there are in existence five hundred
collectors who make a point of buying a copy of every one
that comes out; but it is possible to have too much even
of a good thing. It is a different matter with ¢édztions
de luxe. Such an one was recently contemplated by
Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co., to be edited by
Mr. Francis Francis, whose illness is deplored by the
literary as well as angling world. All rejoice to hear that
he is now progressing towards recovery, and it is to be
hoped that the publishers with his assistance may yet be able
to carry out their intentions. What would the angler-biblio-
philist give for the production of another o/d Walton, which
may have hitherto escaped the notice of bibliographers ?
This is an age of discovery of antiquities, literary and
otherwise, and though we do not wish to give encourage-
ment to piscatorial Shapiras (or Saphiras), the finder of a
genuine o/d Walton on any skin would surely have his
reward. Are a// cupboards, shelves, and chests, in out-
of-the-way nooks and corners yet exhaustively searched ?

An admirable facsimile reprint of the first edition of the
Complete Angler was executed by Mr. Elliot Stock, of
Paternoster Row, in 1876, the very tint and texture of the

IZAAK WALTON. 69

antique paper being reproduced, with the small pages of
“fat” type and its long s’s; while the art of photography
revived the Delphinic title-page, the quaint head-pieces, and
the “cuts” of the terrible fish. But like the original first
edition, it is now very scarce.

The Complete Angler was well received by Walton’s
contemporaries, of whom “ Delightful” Barker was one;
and to him Walton in the “Fourth Day” acknowledges
himself indebted for his “directions for fly-fishing,” which
he, through the medium of P2scator, proceeds to give “with
a little variation.” Richard Franck, however, a Cromwellian
trooper, an Independent of the sour Puritan type, and a
stupendously pretentious writer, but an angler of some expe-
rience, was the exception. In his Northern Memoirs (in
which he gives an account of fly-fishing in Scotland),
published in 1694, though (as he says on his title-page)
“writ in 1658,” does not hesitate to charge full tilt against

Walton on this wise—

‘* However, Izaak Walton (late author of the Compleat Angler)
has imposed upon the world this monthly novelty, which he under-
stood not himself; but stuffs his books with morals from Dubravius
and others, not giving us one precedent of his own practical
experiments, except otherwise where he prefers the trencher before
the trolling-rod ; who lays the stress of his arguments upon other
men’s observations, wherewith he stuffs his indigested octavo ; so
brings himself under the anglers censure, and the common
calamity of a plagiary, to be pitied (poor man) for his loss of
time, in scribbling and transcribing other men’s notions. These
are the drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees they bring
them honey.”

This is a hard hit ; and it would appear that the author,
who was also a practical angler and salmon-fisherman, had
on one occasion a personal argument on matters piscatorial
(and perhaps religious and poetical) with Walton. Sir

70 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Walter Scott, however, who, in 1821, published an edition
of Franck with preface and notes, comes to Walton’s
rescue, though he credits Franck with practical angling
knowledge. He says :—

‘“‘ Probably no readers while they read the disparaging passages
in which the venerable Izaak Walton is introduced, can forbear
wishing that the good old man, who had so true an eye for Nature,
so simple a taste for her most innocent pleasures, and withal, so
sound a judgment, both concerning men and things, had made
this northern tour instead of. Franck ; and had detailed in the
beautiful simplicity of his Arcadian language, his observations on
the scenery and manners of Scotland. Yet we must do our author
the justice to state, that he is as much superior to the excellent
patriarch Izaak Walton, in the mystery of fly-fishing, as inferior to
him in taste, feeling, and common sense. Franck’s contests with
salmon are painted to the life, and his directions to the angler
are generally given with great judgment.”

Byron, who had seldom a good word for any one, had
his fling at old Izaak, when he says—

“ And angling, too, that solitary vice,
Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says ;
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.”

Some persons say they can see an expression of cruelty
in Walton’s portraits !

And even a modern author on angling, who must at
least be given credit for the courage of his opinions, says
of Walton and his book—

“T am free to confess I have derived neither pleasure nor
profit. There is no doubt that in his day the worthy citizen was
an excellent angler ; he was also a simple-minded, kindly, prosy,
and very vain old gentlewoman . ... I would not whisper it
at the “ Walton’s Head” or the ‘ Walton’s Arms,” or hint at it
at the “ Jolly Anglers ” or the “ Rest,” or any other resort of his

IZAAK WALTON. 71

so-called disciples, but to my readers I will impart my private
conviction, that there is now at least little practically to be
learnt from Izaak Walton’s Complete Angler, and that the reading
of it is rather heavy work than otherwise.”

Every one has a right, as it is said, to his own opinion,
and to the pleasure derived from thinking that singularity
may be mistaken for cleverness. And there is such a
thing as the deficiency of a reader being visited on a writer.
But perhaps in reference to no book ever written has there
been such a universal chorus of praise, from the day of its
publication to the present time ; and for once in a way the
showers of “commendatory verses,” which after a fashion
of the time fell on the Complete Angler, were justly deserved.
A very long catena of eminent critics, past and present,
might be adduced who speak in the highest terms of the
book and the author’s literary merits, which he showed
also in his admirable Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker,
Herbert, and Sanderson. Not to go back very far, Dr.
Johnson, as before mentioned, was a great admirer of
Walton; and Charles Lamb thus writes to Coleridge in a
letter dated October 28, 1796 :—

“ Among all your quaint readings did you ever light upon
Walton’s Complete Angler? I asked you the question once before ;
it breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of
heart ; there are many choice old verses interspersed in it ; it
would sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read it; it would
Christianize every discordant, angry passion; pray make yourself
acquainted with it.”

Hazlitt, Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, and Hallam, all
considered the Complete Angler as a triumph of literary
skill. The last-mentioned says that our “ Golden age” of
literature began “with him who has never since been

rivalled in grace, humour, and invention,” and he adds—

72 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

“Walton’s Compleat Angler, published in 1653, seems by the
title a strange choice out of all the books of half a century; yet
its simplicity, its sweetness, its natural grace, and happy inter-
mixture of graver strains with the precepts of angling,’ have
rendered this book deservedly popular, and a model which one
of the most famous among our late philosophers, and a successful
disciple of Izaak Walton in his favourite art (Sir Humphrey
Davy) has condescended (in his Sa/monia) to imitate.”

Among the most recent weighty testimonies to Walton as
an author was that accorded to him a few years ago by the
Dean of Lichfield on the unveiling of a marble bust of
Walton in St. Mary’s Church, Stafford, in which town he
was born, and in which church he was baptized in 1593.
The Dean also dwelt eloquently on Walton’s character ; but
as that does not directly concern us here, suffice it to say
that from what is well known of his life, it accorded with a
very high Christian standard. He was remarkable for his
integrity, his simplicity, his peaceable disposition, for the
warmth and steadfastness of his friendship, for his loyalty
to his sovereign, for his humility and devotion towards
God. The times in which he lived were amongst the most
critical in our national history. His long life stretched
over the last ten years of Elizabeth’s reign, and reached
onwards to within two years of the end of that of
Charles II., and during the whole of that eventful period
“honest Izaak” (as he was called by his familiars) pursued
the even tenour of his way, mourning over the calamities
which he could not avert, thanking God for the measure of
good which he enjoyed, and endeavouring to stamp on
others the impress of his own pure and contented spirit.

December the 15th next will be the two hundredth
anniversary of his death beneath the shadow of Winchester
Cathedral, in which his body lies. We would venture to
suggest that it would be well and appropriate that some

IZAAK WALTON. 73

special notice should be taken of this bicentenary of his
departure. And might not a more worthy monument be
raised to him within the Cathedral walls or elsewhere ?
Even in this critical age the Complete Angler is acknow-
ledged to be one of the most perfect idylls written in any
age or country. As Guillim is to the herald, Blackstone
to the legist, and Hawker to the fowler, so is Walton to

J

the disciples of the “gentle art ;” and though many of the

ichthyological statements in the Complete Angler are not in
accordance with the modern knowledge of zoology, or its
angling directions a reliable guide to modern fishermen, it
will doubtless remain a standard English classic “for all
time,” and the best Axglers Companion, “ which age cannot
wither nor custom stale.” The angling bibliographer and
poet-angler, Mr. Westwood, thus sings its praises in his
Lay of the Lea :—

“ Now in the noontide heat
Here I take my seat.
Izaak’s book beguiles the time—of Izaak’s book I say,
Never dearer page
Gladden’d youth or age ;
Never sweeter soul than his bless’d the merry May.

“ For while I read,
’Tis as if, indeed,
Peace and joy and gentle thoughts from each line were welling ;
As if earth and sky
Took a tenderer dye,
And as if within my heart fifty larks were trilling.

“ Ne’er should angler stroll,
Ledger, dap, or troll,
Without Izaak in his pouch on the banks of Lea ;—
Ne’er with worm or fly
Trap the finny fry,
Without loving thoughts of him, and—Benedicite /”

There is no need to give quotations from a book that

74 LITERATURE OF SEA, AND RIVER FISHING.

most anglers know by heart, but if immediately after the
encomiums on Walton the bathos be not too painful, we
will reproduce the famous “ frog” passage, and directions

for “live-baiting.” This is the first passage—

“‘ Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do from
the middle of April till August ; and then the frog’s mouth grows
up, and he continues so for at least six months without eating,
but is sustained, none but He whose name is Wonderful knows
how: I say, put your hook, I mean the arming-wire, through his
mouth and out at his gills ; and then with a fine needle and silk sew
the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming-wire of
your hook; or tie the frog’s leg, above the upper joint, to the
armed-wire ; and,in so doing, use him as though you loved him,
that is, harm him as little as you may possibly, that he may live
the longer.”

And this is the second, which shows that Walton did not
repudiate the ideas of Dame Juliana Berners, or of his
friend Barker :—

“Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, and in
a windy day, fasten them thus toa bough or bundle of straw, and
by the help of that wind can get them to move across a pond or
mere, you are like to stand still on the shore and see sport
presently, if there be any store of pikes. Or these live baits
may make sport, being tied about the body or wings of a goose
or duck, and she chased over a pond. And the like may be done
with turning three. or four live baits, thus fastened to bladders,
or boughs, or bottles of hay or flags, to swim down a river,
whilst you walk quietly alone on the shore, and are still in
expectation of sport. The rest must be taught you by practice ;
for time will not allow me to say more of this kind of fishing
with live baits.”

The “bottles of hay or flags” thus early suggest the

“liggering ” business, by which sportsmen (save the mark)

IZAAK WALTON. 75

have well-nigh depopulated of their jack some of the best
Norfolk “ Broads.”

And now by way of contrast we will add the famous—
it might almost be said “immortal ”—passage anent the
nightingale, which more than one divine have quoted in

their sermons and commentaries—

“ But the nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes
such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that
it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He
that, at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should
hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the
natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her
voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, ‘Lord, what
music has thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou
affordest bad men such music on Earth.’”

Among Walton’s contemporaries who were writers on
fish and fishing Barker has been already mentioned.
Colonel Robert Venables too, a strong royalist, has been
spoken of as the writer of the Eaperienced Angler, which
was first published in 1662 (though Mr. Estcourt says
1661), and afterwards in the Uxiversal Angler, or fifth
edition of Walton, in 1676. This treatise has gone through
six editions, the last dating 1827. The second edition,
the date of which is uncertain, was destroyed in the Great
Fire of London. Walton contributed a courtly commenda-
tion of the volume addressed to his “ingenious friend the
author” ; but though there is some fair reading in it, it
cannot rank in a high class of its kind. The remarks of
the Colonel on what was two centuries ago, and is still, a
verata questio, namely, the respective merits of “up” and
“down” stream fishing, are in favour of the “downites.”
They will give an example of his style :—

“Fish are frightened with any, the least, sign or motion ; there-

76 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

fore by all means keep out of sight, either by sheltering yourself
behind some bush or tree, or by standing so far off the River’s
side, that you can see nothing but your flie or flote; to effect this,
a long Rod at ground, and a long Line with the artificial flie, may
be of use to you. And here I meet with two different opinions
and practices ; some always cast their flie and bait up the water,
and so they say nothing occurreth to Fishes sight but the Line:
others fish down the River, and so suppose (the Rod and Line
being long) the quantity of water takes away or at least lesseneth
the Fishes sight: but the other affirm, that Rod and Line, and
perhaps yourself, are seen also. In this difference of opinions I
shall only say, in small Brooks you may angle upwards, or else in
great Rivers you must wade, as I have known some, who thereby
got the Sciatica, and I would not wish you to purchase pleasure at
so dear a rate; besides, casting up the River you cannot keep
your Line out of the water, which we noted for a fault before ;
and they that are this way confess that if in casting your flie, the
Line fall into the water before it, the flie were better uncast,
because it frights the Fish; then certainly it must do it this way,
whether the flie fall first or not, the Line must first come to the
Fish and fall on him, which undoubtedly will fright him: there-
fore my opinion is that you angle down the River, for the other
you traverse twice so much, and beat not so much ground as
downwards.”

The length of this last sentence, its composition and
punctuation, are to be noted. The Colonel was hardly
good company for Walton and Cotton.

Cotton, Walton’s other collaborateur in the Universal
Angler (or fifth edition), and great personal friend, has
already been mentioned. His remarks on trout and
erayling fishing are still for the most part sound; and
his literary work, which like Walton he threw into dialogue
form, does not fall far below the standard of “the master.”
It was Walton, Cotton, and Venables, the three joint
parents of the Universal Angler, that the anonymous

IZAAK WALTON. Till

author of The Innocent Epicure, first published in 1697,
thus apostrophises :—

“ Hail great Triumvirate of Angling! hail,
Ye who best taught, and here did best excel.”

But, as it has been remarked in reference to Dame
Juliana Berners’ treatise, that it gave no stimulus to
angling authorship, so it may be noted in reference to
the Walton and Cotton’s Complete Angler, that it seems
to have had the effect of making anglers rather shy of
authorship. Perhaps this may be construed into a com-
pliment to the joint authors ; but anyhow, the fact remains
that during a period of a hundred years, dating from the
fifth edition of the Complete Angler, or, as it might be put,
down to the end of the eighteenth century, but a very few
works on angling made their appearance, though the
Complete Angler by that time had gone through fifteen
editions. Barlow’s extremely scarce book, Zhe severale
wayes of hunting, hawking, and fishing, according to the
English manner, was published in 1671.

In 1674 appeared the Gentleman's Recreation, by Nicholas
Cox, another of those strange “combination” books, contain-
ing treatises on several sports and country pastimes, and all
kinds of odds and ends connected with rural pursuits.
Such volumes for a long period are a marked feature of
the literature connected with fish and fishing. But Cox’s
book is a bad sample of its kind, though it has gone
through several editions. In the first place, it is not an
original book, but a compilation, or rather a “ cribbing,”
from Gervase Markham and other authors; and in the
second place, the author is a dealer in miracles, marvels,
superstitions, astrology, necromancy, and what not. The
Accomplisht Ladies’ Delight, published in the following year,

78 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

is another “combination and compilation ” volume, in which
the author (probably a lady) gives directions for “ preserv-
ing, physick, beautifying, and cookery,” and “also some
new and excellent secrets and experiments in the art of
angling,” which latter are freely borrowed from Barker,
Walton, and others. The book is interesting, as giving
evidence that there were lady anglers at this period; and
part v. of the tenth edition (1719) is entitled “The female
angler, instructing ladies, &c.”

Mr. W. Gilbert’s Axgler’s Delight of 1676, is a quaint
book, of which the author says in the title—“ The like
never before in print!” He gives his readers “the method
of fishing in Hackney Marshes, and the names of the best
stands there,’ and bids them “go to Mother Gibert’s,
at the Flower de Luce, at Clapton, near Hackney,” where
“whilst you are drinking a pot of ale, bid the maid make
you two or three pennyworth of ground-bait and some
paste (which they do very neatly and well).” He suggests
an angler’s outfit as follows: “A good coat for all weathers ;
an apron to put your ground-bait, stones, and paste in; a
basket to put your fish in, &c.,.... and if you have a boy
to go along with you, a good neat’s tongue and a bottle of
Canary should not be wanting ; to the enjoyment of which
I leave you.” A few weeks ago a barbel was taken in the
Thames as low as Chelsea; but our author speaks of this
fish frequenting London Bridge in his time. In a later
edition he tells us how to “fox fish” with what he calls
“Oculus India Berries ;” but he cautions his readers “ that
they practice not this without a licence from the owners,
least the whipping-post or pillory be their reward.”
Chetham’s Angler's Vade-mecum was first published in
1681. The authors of the “Bibliotheca Piscatoria” credit

him with being an “original” writer, and not a mere

IZAAK WALTON. 79

manual compiler, adding that he is “never servile, nor
plagiaristic, always honest, sometimes a little surly.” He
touches on the still vexed question of the mixture of silk
and hair in fishing-lines, declaring in favour of “all of hair
or all of silk.” The following recipe for an unguent to
allure fish, and its use cannot fail to provoke a smile :—

“Of Man’s Fat, Cat’s Fat, Heron’s Fat, and of the best Assa-
foetida, of each two Drams ; Mummy, finely powdered, two Drams ;
Cummin-seed finely powdered, two Scruples, and of Camphor,
Galbanum, and Venice Turpentine of each one Dram; Civet-
grains two. Make according to Art, all into an indifferent thin
Oyntment, with the Chymical Oyls of Lavender, Annise, and
Camomil, of each an equal quantity, and keep the same in a
narrow-mouthed and well-glassed galley-pot close covered with a
Bladder and Leather ; and when you go to Angle, take some of it
in a small pewter Box, made taper, and anoint eight inches of the
Line next the Hook therewith, and when washed off repeat the
same. This Oyntment which for its excellency, Unguentum
Piscatorum mirabile, prodigiously causes Fish to bite, if in the
hand of an Artist that angles within water, and in proper Seasons
and Times, and with suitable Tackle and Baits fit and proper for
the River, Season and Fish he designs to catch. The Man’s Fat

ue te a hay

you may get of the London Chyrurgeons, Wc. I forbore

(for some reasons) to insert the same in my fifth edition ; but now
since its’ divulged, value it not the less, but treat it as a jewel.”

R. Nobbes, who was probably Vicar of Applethorp and
Wood-Newton, in Northamptonshire, first published his
Complete Troller, or the Art of Trolling, in 1682. He is
often spoken of as the “Father of trolling,” by writers on
angling; but it is a title of piscatory honour to which he
has no just right, as this method of “jacking” is treated of
in many of the works already mentioned. It may, how-
ever, be allowed that his discourse upon it is the first of

any length, and he may be credited with having treated

so LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

this branch of angling very systematically, and of dissemin-
ating more correct views of it than had hitherto appeared.
Blome’s Gentleman's Recreation, in 1686, is another of
the “Inquire-within-upon-Everything” type of books,
which have almost as many subjects treated of in them as
has that tediously interesting “ Anatomy of Melancholy,”
by Burton ; and Northern Memoirs, by Franck, the author
already alluded to as tilting at Walton, was published in 1694.
We cannot forbear quoting the following delicious little

bit of his ve the grayling :—

“The umber or grayling, is an amourous fish that loves his
life ; his mouth waters after every wasp, as his fins flutter after
every fly ; for if it be but a fly, or the produce of an insect, out
of a generous curiosity, he is ready to entertain it. Smooth and
swift streams enamour him, but not a torrent; yet, for this fly-
admirer, there is another bait—the munket or sea-green grub,
generated amongst owlder trees, also issues from willows, sallow,
&c. Fish him finely, for he loves curiosity, neat and slender
tackle, and lady-like. You must touch him gently, for he is
tender about the chaps; a brandling will entice him from the
bottom, and a gilt-tail will invite him ashore.”

The True Art of Angling, by J. S., was first published in
1696, and has passed through many editions. Only a few
of the earlier ones have escaped the wear and tear of time.
It has been suggested that this J. S. was none other than
the owner of the good old English name of John Smith,
who in 1684 published one of those numerous patchwork
books, containing treatises on a multiplicity of rural sports
and pastimes. John Smith, in his volume, included the
“making of fireworks,’ and the “noble recreation of
ringing.” This brings us to the close of the Waltonian
period and the end of the seventeenth century.

All interested in old angling literature will rejoice to

ISAAK WALTON. 81

hear that in continuation of their “Library of Old Fishing
Books,” Messrs. Satchell, of Tavistock Street, have in pro-
gress the publication of the following rare volumes (in

uniform Roxbro’ binding) :—

1. An older form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle
(circa 1450), printed from a manuscript in the collection
of Mr. Denison, with preface and glossary by Thomas
Satchell.

2. The Zreatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, first printed by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, with preface and glossary by
Thomas Satchell.

3. The Pleasures of Princes (1614), by Gervase Markham, with
introduction by Thomas Westwood.

4. Conrad Heresbach’s De Piscatione Compendium (1570), with
a translation by Miss Ellis and introduction by Thomas
Westwood.

5. 4 Book of Fishing with Hook and Line (1590), by L.[eonard]
M.[ascall].

6. A Lriefve Treatis of Fishing, with the Art of Angling (1596),
by W.[illiam] G.[ryndall].

7- Book xx of the Geoponika of Cassianus Bassus (circa 950),
with a translation of the Greek and notes.

8. A Jewell for Gentrie (1614).

g. Richard de Fournivall’s De Vetuli (1470), with Jean
Lefevre’s translation.

CHAP RE RAV:

AUTHORS ON FISH AND FISHING IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY.

THE angling literature of this period need not detain us
long, as its authors are neither numerous, instructive, nor
models in the way of composition. Indeed it cannot be
said that there is one among them who has left his mark,
unless it be the author of The Young Man’s Companion,
1703, whose production has been described as “a sand-
wich of pastime and piety, the one following the other
as inevitably as ham follows beef at a picnic.” This
is a sample of it—

“ Having cast into the river half the grains, and an hour being
past, you have no bites of good Roches, you may conclude either
the season is not good, or there are Perch or Pike there. Then
go to some other place to angle for Roches ; if you had baited
the place when you first came to the river, the better... ..
Honest angler, as often as thou art weary, meditate on these
verses :

“ Cease then my soul to dote on or admire
This splendid world which is reserved for fire ;
Decline the company of sinners here,
As thou wouldst not be shackled with them there.

“When you have done angling, go and see if a pike hath
swallowed the Roche, the bait, and if you perceive he is not a little
one, draw him very gently towards you, and when he sees you
away he flies; let go and give him all the line you can, then
draw him gently again to tire him. When he is weary, you may
easily draw him to the bank-side and take him. Then will thy

AUTHORS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 83

mind be so stayed with the fear of the Lord, that this verse
may not disagree with thy thoughts, viz. :

“When weary anglers in the night do sleep,
Their fancies on their float still watching keep.”

It is almost impossible to conceive how any one could
dream of putting such mawkish trash into print.

The century has been called a “leaden” one, and is not
undeserving of the title. The Secrets of Angling, by C. B.,
in 1705, is little more than a compilation, though fairly put
together ; and the same may be said of the Country Gentle-
man's Vade-mecum, by Jacob, in 1717. Saunders’s Compleat
Fisherman, in 1724, is a very far better work, giving a good
deal of information on the English waters and fishing in
different parts of the Continent ; and it is interesting from
the fact that in it is the first mention in any book on
angling with “silk-worm gut.” Pepys, however, in his Diary
(March 18th, 1677), says: “This day Mr. Cesar told mea
pretty experiment of his angling with a minikin, a gutt-string
varnished over, which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond
any hair for strength and smallness. The secret I like
mightily.” As a matter of fact gut came into pretty
general use after the middle of this century. The Gevntle-
man Angler of 1726 does not contain much that was new
in the way of piscatory information, but, under different
names and in different forms, it passed through several
editions, and seems to have been appreciated. Its special
interest lies in the fact that it is the first book on angling
in which we read of rings for the rod and the use of the
winch :—

“Tt will be very convenient to have Rings, or Eyes (as some
call them) made of fine Wire, and placed so artificially upon your
Rod from the one End to the other, that when you lay your Eye
to one, you may see through all the rest; and your Rod being

G 2

84 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

thus furnished, you will easily learn from thence how to put Rings
to all your other Rods. Through these Rings your Line must
run, which will be kept in a due Posture, and you will find great
Benefit thereby. You must also have a Winch or Wheel affixed
to your Rod, about a Foot above the End, that you may give
Liberty to the Fish, which, if large, will be apt to run a great way
before it may be proper to check him, or before he will voluntarily
return.” .

The volume also contained “short plain instructions,
whereby the most ignorant beginner may in a little time
become a perfect artist in angling for Salmon.” The “little
time” even now, with all modern appliances, often takes a
lifetime.”

The British Angler, by Williamson, in 1740, is a mode-
rately good manual as times went, and, like most others,
dealt largely with “pastes.” It is a curious fact that the
great majority of angling authors, who devote a consider-
able space to this department of fraudful baits seldom
recommend them personally. Richard Brooks, M.D., is
another of the many appropriators of other men’s labours,
suggesting that Sze vos non vobis might be an appropriate
motto for many a book on angling. His Art of Angling,
in 1740, assumed the form of a dictionary. Richard and
his son Charles Bowlker were famous anglers at Ludlow,
and authors too, their Art of Angling, improved in all its
parts, especially fly fishing, being really instructive. There
seems to be some confusion in reference to their joint and
separate authorship. The first edition appeared about 1758,
and after that six other editions before the death of the son
Charles Bowlker in 1779. Since then there have been six
more editions, the last dating as late as 1839. “The vora-
city of the Pike” is a favourite ichthyological topic.
Bowlker the younger has a story about it :—

“My father catched a Pike in Barn-Meer (a large standing

AUCILORS IN HE tEIGHTEENLH CENTURY, ~~ 85

water in Cheshire), was an ell long, and weighed thirty-five pounds,
which he brought to Lord Cholmondely ; his lordship ordered it
to be turned into a canal in the garden, wherein were abundance
of several sorts of fish. About twelve months after his lordship
draw’d the canal, and found that this overgrown Pike had devoured
all the fish, except one large Carp, that weighed between nine and
ten pounds, and that was bitten in several places. ‘The Pike was
then put into the canal again, together with abundance of fish
with him to feed upon, all which he devoured in less than a year’s
time ; and was observed by the gardener and workmen there, to
take the ducks, and other water-fowl under water. Whereupon
they shot magpies and crows, and threw them into the canal,
which the Pike took before their eyes: of this they acquainted
their lord ; who, thereupon, ordered the slaughterman to fling in
calves-bellies, chickens-guts, and suchlike garbage to him, to prey
upon: but being soon after neglected, he died, as supposed, for
want of food.”

Shirley’s Anglers Museum, or “the whole art of float and
fly fishing,” published in 1784, is an unpretentious but well-
written and practical little book. A well-executed portrait
of “Mr. John Kirby, the celebrated angler,” who was
Keeper of Newgate and died in 1804, is prefixed to the
third edition. The Worth Country Angler, or “the art
of angling as practised in the Northern Counties of Eng-
land,” which, Mr. Chatto says, “ought to have been called
‘The North Country Poacher,” was published in 1786.
Best’s Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling appeared in
1787, since when eleven further editions have been pub-
lished, 1838 being the date of the last. Best was keeper
of His Majesty’s Drawing Room in the Tower of London,
and was evidently a good practical angler. He has no less
than 30 pages of his book on the “ Prognostics of Weather”
to be observed by anglers.

During this century several editions of what may be

called the “standard” authors on angling were issued at
ro) D

86 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

intervals, but the authors above mentioned comprise nearly
all in this country who essayed to deal with matters pisca-
torial. If other periods had not been more prolific of
fishing literature, collectors of books on angling would have

but a beggarly array of almost empty shelves.

(378)

CHAPTER Vir

AUTHORS ON FISHING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

THE nineteenth century list of English piscatory authors is
very different to that of the last, both in quantity and
quality. A recent writer on angling bibliography has said
that “originality is scarce among them.” But we venture
to differ with him. The subject-matter of angling, as has
been before remarked, is necessarily of a somewhat limited
range ; and there must, of course, be some similarity in the
works of those writers who treat mainly of it in its purely
practical aspect, and especially in reference to the more
common branches of the art. Bearing this in mind, we should
be inclined, notwithstanding the multitude of angling works
which have been published during the present century, to con-
sider the diversity of style and matter as a marked feature
in the angling literature of that period. Authors, -gene-
rally speaking, have taken a variety of lines, as they them-
selves differ from each other in their fancies for this or that
particular variety of fishing, in their variety of experiences
and variety of literary bent. Thus readers have a vast
choice of works put before them to suit their different wants
and tastes—works scientific, descriptional, “informational,”
and humbly didactic. Moreover, hardly any two anglers
will be found to agree as to which are their favourite
authors ; at one time, or rather for one purpose, prefer-
ring one, and at another time, and for another purpose,
another ; or, finding that different authors suit their different

moods at different times, or supply the particular reading or

88 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

information they require on some particular branch of
fishing, or for some particular angling expedition. Thus, if
there is no very great amount of absolute “ originality ”
among our angling authors, there is an abundant supply of
diversity, and though in one sense they may be like one
another, they are “like in difference.”

The angling works of the present century being so nume-
rous, we must perforce limit ourselves to only the mere
mention by name of many of them; and, as the great
majority of them are easily obtainable, we shall not to any
great extent call in the aid of quotations from them, espe-
cially as this and the following chapter are intended rather
for the purposes of reference and “indication” than of
criticism.

Taylor’s Angling in all its Branches, published in 1800,
is a compendious and fairly written manual, and recom-
mended by Sir Harris Nicolas in his editions of Walton ;
and Daniels’ Rural Sports of the following year contains a
good deal of readable matter on fish and fishing. The
Kentish Angler of 1804 is one of the rare local books, and
may still be consulted with profit. Mackintosh’s Driffield
Angler, of 1806, is still worth reading, especially by anglers
in Midland streams. Robert Salter published his Modern
Angler in 1811; but must not be confounded with
Thomas Frederick Salter, a well-known hatter of his
time, whose Axglers’ Guide, published in 1814, has gone
through a dozen or so editions, and may still be called a
standard work. The same may be said of Bainbridge’s ///y-
fishers Guide, 1816, the last edition of which was published
in 1840. It was illustrated with coloured plates repre-
senting upwards of forty flies of the most useful kind,
copied from nature, and well taught how

“ To lightly on the dimpling eddy fling
The hypocritic fly’s unruffled wing.”

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 89

Carroll’s Anglers’ Vade-mecum, of 1818, was probably the
first book on angling which gave flies coloured by hand.

We will here pay our Transatlantic cousins the compli-
ment of including Washington Irving among “ English”
authors, and quoting a passage from Zhe Angler, which
appeared in his Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in
1820 :—

“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce
a gentleness of spirit, and a pure sincerity of mind. As the
English are methodical even in their recreations, and are the
most scientific of sportsmen, it has been reduced among them to
a perfect rule and system. Indeed it is an amusement peculiarly
adapted to the mild and highly-cultivated scenery of England,
where every roughness has been softened away from the land-
scape. It is delightful to saunter along these limpid streams,
which meander like veins of silver through the bosom of this
beautiful country; leading us through a diversity of small
scenery ; sometimes winding through ornamented grounds ;
sometimes running along through rich pasturage, where the fresh
green is mingled with sweet-smelling flowers; sometimes ven-
turing in sight of villages and hamlets; and then running
capriciously away into shady retirements. The sweetness and
serenity of nature, and the quiet watchfulness of the sport,
gradually bring on pleasant fits of musing; which are now and
then greatly interrupted by the song of the bird, the distant
whistle of a peasant, or perhaps the vagary of some fish leaping
out of the still water, and skimming transiently about its glassy
surface.”

The year 1828 is marked by Sir Humphrey Davy’s Sa/-
monia, Which was reviewed by Professor Wilson (Christopher
North) in Blackwood, and in the Quarterly by Sir Walter
Scott. The dialogue may be a little too formal, and Haleus
rather too particular a gentleman for an angler who often
has to “rough it ;” and certainly the whole book, though
modelled on the Complete Angler, lacks the freshness,

go LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

simplicity, and geniality of Walton’s style. Still it is a
most delightful contribution to English angling literature,
and will doubtless ever remain a prime favourite in the
angler’s library. .

The decade dating from 1830 was prolific of angling
authors. In 1832 Jesse published his Gleanings, “ with
maxims and hints for an angler ;” and later on appeared
his Anglers Rambles, of which he said—

“Fish, nature, streams, discourse, the line, the hook,
Shall form the motley subject of my book.”

Richard Penn, a great-grandson of William Penn, of
Pennsylvania fame, published, in 1833, a partly practical
and partly humorous book, which has gone through four
editions, entitled Maxims and Hints for an Angler and

Miseries of Fishing, etc. This is one of the “Maxims ” :—

“Tf during your walks by the river-side you have marked any
good fish, it is fair to presume that other persons have marked
them also. Suppose the case of two well-known fish, one of
them (which I will call A) lying above a certain bridge, the
other (which I will call B) lying below the bridge. Suppose
further that you have just caught B, and that some curious and
cunning friend should say to you, in a careless way, ‘Where did
you take that fine fish?’ a finished fisherman would advise you
to tell your inquiring friend that you had taken your fish just
above the bridge, describing, as the scene of action, the spot
which, in truth, you know to be still occupied by the other
fish, A. Your friend would then fish no more for A, supposing
that to be the fish which you had caught; and whilst he inno-
cently resumes his operations below the bridge, where he falsely
imagines B still to be, A is left quietly for you, if you can catch
him.”

And here is a brace of “ Miseries ”—

“ Taking out with you as your aide-de-camp an unsophisticated
lad from the neighbouring village, who laughs at you when you

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 91

miss hooking a fish rising at a fly, and says, with a grin, ‘ You
can’t vasten ’em as my vather does.’

“Telling a long story after dinner, tending to show (with full
particulars of time and place) how that, under very difficult
circumstances, and notwithstanding very great skill on your part,
your tackle had been that morning broken and carried away by
a very large fish ; and then having the identical fly, lost by you
on that occasion, returned to you by one of your party, who
found it in the mouth of a trout, caught by him, about an hour
after your disaster, on the very spot so accurately described by
you—the said very large fish being, after all, a very small one.”

The Angler in Wales (1834), by Captain Medwin, the
friend and fellow traveller of Byron, may be mentioned as
an instance of an execrably bad book, which has deservedly
received some terrible “slatings.” For instance, Chatto
says of the author—“he might as well have called his book
‘The Angler in Hindostan;” and this is how another
critic and angler epitomizes it—“ The book is a medley,
and by no means a good one, made up apparently from
the odds and ends of some MS. collection of anecdotes.
Mesmerism and dog-otters, snuff-taking and second-sight,
affectionate terriers and literary lions, portraits of young
ladies, beautiful as Diana and bewitchingly familiar with
the slang of horse-jockeys, tales of Welsh courtship,
scandal, love, lunacy, and murder, ‘are jumbled antitheti-
cally jowl by cheek.’ Even where the narrator deviates
into his subject, we glean but a minimum of information
from his pages. I have, in my time, fished extensively,
and to some purpose, in the lakes and rivers of Wales.
Captain Medwin may have done the same, but, if so, he
kept his secret with the fidelity of Junius. His book
nowhere shows us how it was done. There is little or no
useful information about the flies, the seasons, or the
stations most favourable to the angler. Instead thereof, a

92 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

great deal of space is devoted to fishing with salmon roe, a
bait which he seems to think an important novelty, while,
at the same time, he shows utter ignorance of the manner
in which it is to be made the deadly lure which, under
certain circumstances, it too surely is.”

Mr. Chatto, just mentioned, himself entered the lists an
author in the next year (1835) under the pseudonym of
“Fisher ;” and his Angler’s Souvenir is a clever and useful
book, and deserving of the last edition published in 1877
with Mr. G. Christopher Davies, no mean angling author,
as its editor.

We now come to a book which, though to some extent
superseded by other and fuller works, may almost be said
to mark a new era of angling literature. It is the Av¢ of
Angling in Scotland, by Thomas Tod Stoddart, published
in 1835. He published other works later on, notably the
Angler's Companion in 1853, of which no fly-fisherman
should fail to obtain a copy when he can. Stoddart is a
most practical instructor, and was the first to thoroughly
exhaust the subject of fishing with a worm iu clear water.
There does not seem much connection between poets and
worms, but Stoddart was one of the former, and _ his
writings show that he felt all the poetry of angling.
Another great authority on fly-fishing comes next in the
person of Alfred Ronalds, whose /ly-Fisher’s Entomology,
first published in 1836, and since then gone through seven
editions, will long remain a standard authority in its par-
ticular line. No one who aims at being a scientific fly-
fisherman or fly-maker should be ignorant of the contents
of this book, the excellently executed plates giving, with
some trifling inaccuracies, a coloured representation of the
natural fly, and of that to be produced artificially. The
book is a great authority, especially for what may be called

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 93

Midland Counties’ waters. In 1839 T. C. Hofland, author,
artist, and fisherman, dedicated the first edition of his
British Angler's Manual to Sir Francis Chantrey. This
and subsequent editions are enriched with engravings and
woodcuts from pictures and drawings by the author himself
and other well-known artists. There are few books on
piscatorial shelves which more fully accord with the spirit
of a true angler and a true artist.

The year 1840 is associated with three authors of mark.
The first is James Wilson (brother of “Christopher North”),
author of Zhe Rod and Gun, and contributor of many
most genial, entertaining and instructive articles on fish
and fishing in almost every branch of the art, to Black-
wood's Magazine. The second is J. Colquhoun, the author
of the Moor and the Loch, which reached its fifth edition in
1880. There are few books which are more worthy of the
favour with which it has been so long received by the
naturalist, the sportsman, and even the general reader.
Without much pretension to be called a naturalist (so
modestly says the author of himself), he has always
endeavoured to keep his eyes open as the wilder points of
nature were unfolded before him, and no part of his
mountain life has given him such unmixed pleasure as
watching the minute and tender care of the great Parent
of all good in adapting the creatures of the storm to their
lonely solitudes, and spreading before them a table in the
wilderness, It is this happy mixture of ardour as a sports-
man, and fresh devoutness of spirit which imparts so true
and lasting a charm to the whole volume. The habits and
haunts of birds, beasts, and fish have never been more
brightly, truly, and picturesquely described than in these
glowing and pleasant pages. Mr. Colquhoun its essentially

a gentleman and sportsman; and he may claim to be the

94 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

first authority of his time on the wary Sa/mo ferox, and its
capture in the larger Scotch lochs. The third author
associated with 1840 is a poor shoemaker of Kelso, of the
name of John Younger, who had a great local reputation
as an angler and fly-dresser. He gave his experiences to
the world in his River Angling for Salmon and Trout,
which a fly-fisherman will do well to read if he comes
across it. Younger, too, is a bit of a poet, as several of his
compositions quoted in Mr. Henderson’s My Life as an
Angler testify.

Mr. Edward Chitty, Barrister-at-Law, published his very
instructive J/ustrated Fly-fisher’s Text-book in 1841 ; and in
the same year Blacker, the well-known fishing-tackle maker
of Dean Street, Soho, who died a few years ago, his Art of
Angling, wherein are illustrated with plates the various
stages of the artificial fly before it is finished. In 1842,
the articles, which during many years previously had been
written by Professor John Wilson for Llackwood’s Magazine,
were published under the title of Te Recreations of Chris-
topher North, a name which will be associated with angling
as long as the sport is pursued. Professor Wilson was a
prince among anglers and among men, and though he com-
bined the characters of artist, poet, philosopher, and philan-
thropist, yet he still stands out as a perfect individuality.
Let every angler possess his Christopher North, if only as
a specimen of angling literature of the most happy, spirited,
and withal polished style, though abounding with what
might almost be called the “slang” of angling. Just a
quotation as a specimen, in which the Professor describes
killing trout in Loch Awe when they were “ well on ” :—

“Lie on your oars, for we know the water. The bottom of
this shallow bay—for ’tis nowhere ten feet—is in places sludgy,
and in places firm almost as green-sward, for we have waded it of

MOLHORS IN THETNINETEENTILVCENTORY. 95

yore, many a time up to our chin, till we had to take to our fins—
there! Mr. Yellowlees was in right earnest, and we have him as
fast as an otter. There he goes, snoring and snuving along, as
deep as he can—steady, boys, steady—and seems disposed to
pay a visit to Rabbit Island. There is a mystery in this we do
not very clearly comprehend ; the uniformity of our friend’s con-
duct becomes puzzling; he is an unaccountable character. He
surely cannot be an eel; yet, for a trout, he manifests an un-
natural love of mud on a fine day. Row shoreward—Proctor, do
as we bid you—she draws but little water ; run her bang up on
that green line, then hand us the crutch, for we must finish this
affair on ¢erra firma. Loch Awe is certainly a beautiful piece of
water. The islands are disposed so picturesquely, we want no
assistance but the crutch. Here we are, with elbow room, and
on stable footing; and we shall wind up, returning from the
water's edge as people do from a levee, with their faces towards
the king. Do you see them yellowing, you Tory? What bellies!
Why, we knew by the dead weight that there were ‘Aree, for they
kept pulling one against another; nor were we long in discover-
ing the complicated movement of triplets. Pounders each, same
weight to an ounce; same family, all bright as stars. Never
could we endure angling from a boat. What loss of time getting
the whoppers whiled into the landing-net! What loss of peace of
mind in letting them off, when their snouts, like those of Chinese
pigs, were within a few yards of the gunwale; and when, with a
last convulsive effort, they whaumled themselves over, with their
splashing tails, and disappeared for ever. Now for five flies
—wind on our back—no tree within an acre—no shrub higher
than the bracken—no reed, rush, or water-lily in all the bay.
What hinders that we should, what the Cockneys call, wip with a
dozen? We have set the lake afeed; epicure and glutton are
alike rushing to destruction. ‘Trouts of the most abstemious
habits cannot withstand the temptation of such exquisite evening
fare, and we are much mistaken if here be not an old dotard—a
lean and slippery pantaloon—who had long given up attempting
vainly to catch flies, and found it as much as he could do to over-
take the slower sort of worms. Him we shall not return to his

96 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

native element, to drag out a pitiable existence, but leave him
where he lies, to die—he is dead already—

“*¢ For he is old, and miserably poor.’

Two dozen in two hours we call fair sport, and we think they will
average not less, Proctor, than a pound. Lascelles and North
against any two in England! We beseech you only look at
yonder noses, thick as frogs, as pow heads! ‘There, that was
lightly dropped among them, each fatal feather seeming to melt
on the water like a snowflake. We have done the deed, Proctor ;
we have done the deed. We feel that we have five. Observe
how they will come to light in succession, a size larger and larger,
with a monster at the tail fly. Even so. To explain the reason
why would perplex a Master of Arts. Five seem about fifty,
when all dancing about together in an irregular figure ; but they
have sorely ravelled our gear. It matters not, for it must be
wearing well towards eight o’clock, and we dine at sunset.”

And yet a few lines more—

“ Whirr, whirr, whirr! Satmo FEROx, as sure asa gun! The
maddened monster has already run out ten fathoms of chain
cable. His spring is not so sinewy as a salmon’s of the same
size ; but his rush is more tremendous, and he dives like one of
the damned in Michael Angelo’s ‘Last Judgment.’ All the
twelve barbs are gorged, and not but with the loss of his torn-out
entrails can he escape death. Give us an oar, or he will break
the rope. ‘There, we follow him at equal speed, sternmost ; but
canny canny ! for if the devil doubles upon us he may play mis-
chief yet, by getting under our keel. That is noble! There he
sails, some twenty fathoms off, parallel to our pinnace, at the rate
of six knots, and bearing—for we are giving him the ée¢/—right
down upon the Laracha Ban, as if towards spawning ground, in
the genial month of August; but never again shall he enjoy his
love. See! he turns up a side like a house. Ay, that is indeed
a most commodious landing place, and ere he is aware of water
too shallow to hide his back fin, will be whallopping upon the
yellow sand.”

AUGLHORS LN EHE NINE TE ENIGT CENTORY. 97

Scrope, another excellent and spirited writer, though
taking a more limited range, makes his bow, in 1843, with
his Days and Nights of Salmon-Fishing in the Tweed. The
book, even apart from its angling interest, is well worth
reading as a bright and elegant literary composition, in
which quaint legend and humorous anecdote were never
better told. An enthusiastic angler-author, though he has
unbounded admiration for many angling works, says that
“the book of angling has not yet been written,” adding,
that “to write it would indeed require more extensive
practice than is often attained, or perhaps even desirable,
and a singular combination of endowments. We shall
hardly see the gifts of Professor Wilson, Sir Humphrey
Davy, and Mr. Scrope united in one man; and yet, I con-
fess, little short of such a union would complete my ideal
of the author.”

Blakey—“ Palmer Hackle, Esq.”’—began publishing his
books in 1846, but they hardly rise above the level of
mediocrity, though they contain some useful topographical
information as to fishing waters in England, Scotland, and
Ireland. Edward Fitzgibbon, so long well known and appre-
ciated in the angling columns of Lell’s Life as ‘“ Ephemera,”
published his Handbook of Angling in 1847, and his Book of
the Salmon three years afterwards. Though many anglers
have questioned the correctness of some of his views, both
books will hold their own, and will repay careful study, the
former especially by the humbler class of anglers who have
not salmon and trout fishing at their command.

The Rev. Henry Newland, a “ Tractarian” leader in the
pre-Ritualistic days, and as an able wielder of the fly-rod
as of the pen, published The Erne; zts Legends and its Fly-
fishing, in 1851, and three years later Forest Scenes in
Norway and Sweden; being extracts from the Fournal of a

iH

98 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Fisherman—delightful books of a high literary cast, inter-
spersed with much humour. The present writer often had
the pleasure of chatting with him when he was Vicar of
St. Mary Church, S. Devon, where he died.. He was a
most charming vaconteur especially of piscatory incidents.
Dr. Badham’s Prose Haliculics; or Ancient and Modern
Fish Tattle, was welcomed by a very large number of
readers in 1854. It has been already mentioned as one of
the most interesting books of its kind ever written, and it
would be almost easier to say what there is not in it than
what there is, comprising as it does an almost endless
variety of chit-chat, and that, too, of the most learned kind
about fish and fishing. Dr. Badham is particularly “great”
on opsophagy. In the same year Robert Knox, M.D., who
affected to be a scientific naturalist and special authority
on Salmonoid biology, cannot be said to have added lustre
to angling literature by the publication of his /7sk and Fish-
ing in the lone Glens of Scotland. Though, perhaps, hardly
deserving of the terrible lashing the book and its author get
at the hands of Mr. H.R. Francis; still, for a writer who
lays down angling and ichthyological law in an offensively
authoritative manner, to muddle up together Salmo salar
and Salmo fario, to deny the Highlands the credit of
being an angling country, and to describe the Test as a
“quiet muddy stream,” almost puts himself beyond the
pale of toleration. It is, however, but fair to the author to
say that there is a good deal of interesting reading in his
book, apart from its many blemishes.

W. C. Stewart’s Practical Angler ; or, the Art of Trout
Fishing, is another of the books which no fly-fisherman
should leave unstudied. The first edition of the Practical
Angler appeared in 1857, and the last in 1877, five years
after the author’s death. Mr. Stewart was known as one

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 99

of the most accomplished trout fishers of his day, and
especially in “clear water.” He elaborates this particular
phase of angling, and discusses exhaustively, and with
great fairness, all the verate questiones of the fly-fisher’s
vocation, such as “up” or “down” stream fishing, the
colour and make of flies, the pliability of fly-rods, &c.
Some “outsiders” are inclined to smile when anglers
speak of the education of modern fish ; but this is what
Mr. Stewart says on the subject :-—

“Much fishing, besides to a certain extent thinning the trout,
operates against the angler’s killing large takes, by making the
‘remaining trout more wary, and it is more from this cause than
the scarcity of trout that so many anglers return unsuccessful
from much-fished streams. ‘The waters also now remain brown-
coloured for such a short time that the modern angler is deprived,
unless on rare occasions, of even this aid to his art of deception ;
and the clearness of the water, and the increased wariness of the
trout, are the main causes why the tackle of fifty years ago would
be found so faulty now. Fifty years ago it was an easy thing to
fill a basket with trout ; not so now. ‘Then there were ten trout
for one there is now. The colour of the water favoured the
angler, and the trout were comparatively unsophisticated. Now
filling a basket with trout, at least in some of our southern streams
open to the public, when they are low and clear, is a feat of which
any angler may be proud... . Angling is, in fact, every day
becoming more difficult, and consequently better worthy of being
followed as a scientific amusement. So far from looking upon
the increase of anglers with alarm, it ought to be regarded with
satisfaction ; the more trout are fished for, the more wary they
become ; the more wary they are, the more skill is required on
the angler’s part, and, as the skill an amusement requires consti-
tutes one of its chief attractions, angling is much better sport now
than it was fifty years ago.”

But as we are now finding ourselves in company of contem-
porary contributors to angling literature, the great majority
H

i)

100 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

of whom are still alive and “ plying the angle,” it would be
beyond our original purpose to do much more than men-
tion some of their names and chief productions. During the
last twenty-five years many have been very active both
with their rods and pens, and it may be fairly said that
success has attended both their piscatory and literary
efforts. We need by no means be ashamed of the angling
literature of the last quarter of a century. Charles Kings-
ley, in his Chalk Stream Studies, which first appeared in
Fraser's Magazine for September, 1858, shows us the kind
of man an angler can be, and the kind of angler a man
can be, as he also does in his Life and Letters, published
by his widow. The first named little book is a mine of
information to the fly-fisher, and charming reading in all
respects. The last quotation we shall indulge in is one of

his pictures of English scenery :—

“ Let the Londoner have his six weeks every year among crag
and heather, and return with lungs expanded and muscles braced
to his nine months’ prison. The countryman, who needs no such
change of air and scene, will prefer more home-like though more
homely pleasures. Dearer to him than wild cataracts or Alpine
glens are the still hidden streams which Bewick has immortalized
in his vignettes, and Creswick in his pictures; the long glassy
shadow, paved with yellow gravel, where he wades up between
low walls of fern-fringed rock, between nut and oak and alder, to
the low bar over which the stream comes swirling and dimpling,
as the water-ousel flits piping before him, and the murmur of the
ring-dove comes soft and sleepy through the wood. There, as he
wades, he sees a hundred sights, and hears a hundred tones,
which are hidden from the traveller on the dusty highway above.
The traveller fancies that he has seen the country. So he has,
the outside of it at least ; but the angler only sees the inside. The
angler only is brought close face to face with the flower and bird
and insect life of the rich river banks, the only part of the land-
scape where the hand of man has never interfered, and the only

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 101

part in general which never feels the drought of summer, ‘ the
trees planted by the water-side, whose leaf shall not wither.’ ”

In 1858, too, Mr. Francis Francis makes his first appear-
ance in print with his Azgler’s Register, and ever since
then he has been a busy writer, as the columns of the
Field and contemporary periodical literature bear witness.
His magnum opus is A Book on Angling, first published in
1867, since which date it has passed through several editions,
and is long likely to remain one of the chief and most-reliable
text-books for anglers of all kinds. Probably no fisherman
living has had greater experience in almost all the waters
of the United Kingdom, and in all kinds of fishing, and
therefore he is one of the safest guides an angler can follow.
The medical profession supplies another piscatory author
in the person of Mr. W. Wright, “Surgeon Aurist to her
late Majesty Queen Charlotte, &c,” who in 1858 published
his Fishes and Fishing .. . “anatomy of their senses, their
loves, passions, and intellects.” It is a curious medley of
selections apparently from his note-book, but fairly in-
teresting, and flavoured with good anecdotes. “Otter’s”
Complete Guide to Spinning and Trolling first appeared in
1859, and has gone through several editions, as has also
his Modern Angler, first published in 1864. Captain Alfred,
of Moorgate Street, is the “Otter” in question ; and as he
has had great experience and success as an angler, espe-
cially in the Thames and other waters within easy reach
of London, those who go the “home circuit” will find his
pleasantly written little book most helpful. Captain Alfred
is also a most skilful painter of fish.

Another Master in piscatorial Israel, and of almost
boundless experience like Mr. Francis Francis, is Mr. H.
Cholmondeley Pennell. His first book, Spinning Tackle,
appeared in 1862, and his Angler Naturalist, Fishing Gossip,

to2 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

and other works, have followed. His Book of the Pike is,
perhaps, the best piscatorial monograph ever written, and
exhaustive of the subject with which it deals. Mr. H.C.
Cutliffe’s little book, The Art of Trout Fishing in Rapid
Streams, 1863, is written mainly in reference to North
Devon, but is applicable more or less to rapid streams
everywhere, and though rather prolix, should be read by
all fly-fishers who have to deal with such waters. It had
become very difficult to obtain a copy of this book, but
Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. have recently issued a new
edition. Zhe Fisherman's Magazine was published in
monthly numbers, under the editorship of Mr. Cholmon-
deley Pennell, during the years 1864 and 1865, and “by
arrangement” ceased to exist when Laud and Water made
its appearance. Anglers should always secure it when
they can, as many of our best angling writers contributed
to it, and it is replete with all kinds of fishing gossip and
miscellaneous articles of interest to all fishermen. The
Autobiography of the late Salmo Salar, Esq. by Mr. G.
Rooper, made a hit in 1867; and his other works, Flood,
Field, and Forest, and Thames and Tweed, contain pleasant
sketches in great variety. Mr. Greville Fennell, almost
better known as Greville F in the pages of the Fed
and other current literature, began to supply anglers in
1867 with The Rail and the Rod, which gave them a great
deal of information as to waters to be reached by the

various main lines of railway, which still for the most part
holds good. His Book of the Roach (1870) is another well
executed piscatorial monograph.

Among works of a semi-pastoral and idyllic character,
combined with that of angling proper, Mr. W. Senior’s
(“Red Spinner”) Waterside Sketches, 1875, and Mr. G. C.
Davies’ Angling Idylls, 1876, stand out conspicuous. Both

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 103

authors have produced other works, the features of which
are their pleasant easy style of narrative and accurate
picture-painting of angling surroundings. Here comes in
for mention one of the most remarkable books ever issued
in connection with angling literature. It is entitled A
Quaint Treatise on Flees and the Art a Artyfichall Flee
Making, and was brought out by Mr. W. H. Aldam, a
noted fly-fisherman in his day, in 1876. The treatise was
written, according to the title-page, “By an Old Man well
known on the Derbyshire streams a century ago,” and is
printed from the old MS., “never before published,” in rare
old large type, with double red-line borders and spacious
margin. The editorial notes are by Mr. Aldam. The
unique feature of the handsome quarto is the introduction
of very thick cardboard leaves, containing, in sunk, gilt-
edged panels, pattern flies and the materials for making
them. Each compartment has the pattern fly made in the
best style, the feathers, hackle, silk, hair, and twist, which
are necessary for its exact manufacture, each separate, and
securely fastened down—an idea which may have been
suggested by the earlier editions of Blacker’s Art of Fly-
making, which have specimens of flies wafered to the page.
In Mr. Aldam’s book there are twenty-two flies given in the
way described, and they “kill” as well now as in the days
of the “Old Man.” But few copies of this unique book
were brought out, in consequence of the expense and
labour involved in producing each. Its original price was
necessarily a high one, but it commands nearly double that
now, and is worth it, if only as a work of art; but it is
seldom that a copy is found on sale. None but a perfect
enthusiast could have conceived and carried out a work like
this. Mr. J. P. Wheeldon’s Angling Resorts near London,
published in 1878, is, like all the productions of his facile

104 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

pen, full of instruction and interest, and redolent of a
genial spirit. Perhaps, when he is less busy with periodical
literature, he will supply us with a further instalment of a
more permanent character.

In January 1880 Messrs. Satchell & Co. began to issue
The Anglers’ Note-Book and Naturalists Record, in separate
numbers, which formed a volume by the end of June in that
year. It is a kind of “ Notes and Queries” production, to
which many well-known scholars and angling writers con-
tributed ; and anglers and others will be glad to hear that
a new series is in contemplation. In this year the Messrs.
Satchell brought out a new edition of My Life as an Angler,
by Mr. William Henderson ; and it would not be far wrong
to say that this is one of the most important contributions
to angling literature of late years. It is one of those books,
like “The Complete Angler,” whose special charm is that it
seems to make the reader personally acquainted with the
author, the manner of man he is, or was, and able fully to
sympathise with him. There is no modern book upon
angling and its surroundings which could be put into the
hands of novice or veteran with greater chances of charming
both alike. It holds a copious store of information and
anecdote, and reflects in every page its author’s contented
spirit, kindly heart, and ripe experience. A sound and
carefully-compiled manual for all kinds of fishing is Mr.
J. H. Keene’s Practical Fisherman, published in 1881. One
of its features is that it contains full descriptions of all
kinds of fishing-tackle, and admirably plain directions. The
Scientific Angler, by the late David Foster, of Ashbourne,
was a welcome addition to angling literature in 1882.
British Field Sports, published last year by Mackenzie
of Ludgate Hill, E.C., contains pleasant angling reading.
Among recent angling publications of value are several

AUTHORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. | 105

brought out by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co.
One is entitled Ax Angler's Strange Experience, the
character of which may be partly surmised by the
additional title of “A Whimsical Medley, and an Of-
Fish-all Record without A-dr7dge-ment. By Cotswold
Isys, M.A., Fellow of All-soles, late Scholar of Wanch-
ester. Now Ready. Profusely Illustrated in a Style never
before App-voach-ed.” The second is float Fishing and
Spinning in the Nottingham style, by J. W. Martin (“Trent
Otter”), which Thames anglers and others wedded to their
own style of tackle and fishing would do wellto read. The
third is a revised edition of Michael Theakston’s ritish
Angling Flies, by Mr. F.M. Walbran. The first edition was
published in 1862, but has long been out of print. It
received the high commendation of Charles Kingsley, in his
Chalk Stream Studies above mentioned, and was well worth
reviving. It is now improved by a modification of the con-
fusing nomenclature of flies adopted by the author. The
Angler's Complete Guide and Companion, by Mr. G. Little,
the well-known fishing-tackle maker of Fetter Lane, E.C.
(who, by the way, has most deservedly been awarded one
of the Gold Medals and other distinctions at the Fisheries
Exhibition), is among the last contributions to angling
literature, and deserving of special mention for the seventy-
six hand-coloured illustrations of the best known flies.
May we not expect some contribution to angling literature
from the pen of that accomplished fisherman, Mr. A. G,
Jardine? It would be more than welcomed by all anglers.

From this brief survey of the angling literature of the
present century, even though many names are omitted from
it, it will be seen that it has flowed on in a continuous
and increasing stream. Judging from all appearances, it is

likely to continue so to do. The Fisheries Exhibition, by

106 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

setting every one talking about fish and fishing, has estab-
lished what may almost be called an “ichthyomania ;” and
the rapidly increasing number of anglers will naturally stimu-
late angling authorship. Moreover, as there is no finality
in the art of angling, and fish become more and more
“ educated,” so that the angler has to be constantly refin-
ing upon his tackle, lures and methods, dissertations on the
subject in all its branches follow almost as a matter of
course. Thus “of making of many books” on angling, we
may presume, there will be “no end”; but however many
there be, and however interesting and useful in their way
anglers and would-be anglers may find them, they must
bear in mind the caution given by Izaak Walton in his
SiH pistie to the Reader ~ -<—

“ Now for the art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make
aman that was none /o de an angler by a book. He that under-
takes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, that ina
printed book undertook to teach the art of fencing, and was
laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things
might be observed out of that book, but that the art was not to
be taught by words ; zor is the Art of Angling.”

Ge 107)

CHARTER evil:
THE ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING.

RIGHTLY has a poet observed that—

“The power of waters over the minds of poets has been
acknowledged from the earliest ages; through the fluwmina amem
sylvasgue inglorius’ of Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe
to the great rivers of the earth by Armstrong, and the simple
ejaculation of Burns :—

‘The Muse na Poet ever fand her,
Till by himsel’ he learned to wander
Adown some trolling burn’s meander
And no think lang.’”

This has been partly testified to by the quotations
already given in chapter II. from ancient poetical authors,
whose theme has been fish and fishing, many of whom
have been happy both in themselves and in their English
translators. We now come to the English piscatory poets
themselves. But here, again, there is some little difficulty
as to who can fairly be included in the category; and
perhaps it would not be well to draw too hard and fast
line in this manner, but to include those who make more
or less lengthy allusions to fishing, and sing the praises
of angling.

It would savour of optimism to argue that English
piscatory poetry generally maintains a high standard ; but
we cannot help thinking that Mr. Westwood is a little hard
on our authors when he says, “To some three or four of
them may be assigned a place—shall we say midway, by

108 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

courtesy ?—on the ledges of Parnassus; the rest are
innocent of all altitudes whatsoever, except those of Grub
Street garrets, or the stilts of an absurd vanity.” Many of
them have taken admirable advantage of what may be
called the “surroundings” of angling, and have dressed up
the art itself, which, at the best, only offers a limited field
for description, with true and beautiful pictures of the
scenes amid which it is followed. One of the great charms
of angling is that, of all sports, it affords the best oppor-
tunities of enjoying the wonders and beauties of nature ;
while, at the same time, it develops a love of nature, and
creates a taste for the study of various celestial and terres-
trial phenomena. This sentence may sound like an introduc-
tion to a heavy essay ; but it is true that whatever be the
season of the year, whether the angler be casting his fly on
the early rivers of the west of England or northern Caledonia,
mid the cold winds and storms of February and March, or
later on beneath the more genial skies of April and May,
or basking in the summer’s sun on the bosom of the
Thames, as he is lazily indifferent whether his bait tempts
the fish or not, or pursuing his pastime during the soft
autumn days, or the chill and short daylight hours of winter,
whether he be strolling along the margin of the swift-rushing
streams of Wales and Scotland, with mountain and moor-
land round him, or of the more gently flowing rivers of the
South, which meander through the rich water-meadows
curtained by hanging woods, or angling patiently on lonely
loch or by side of sedgy pool—the sights and sounds of
nature are ever present to him, as she reveals herself
in her various moods and phases. It is not, of course,
meant that all anglers are keen lovers of nature, or observant
of natural phenomena ; but the great majority certainly are

so, and become more and more interested every year in all

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 109

they see and hear about their paths. He spake truly in the
“Old Play” :—

“ Trust me, there is much ’vantage in it, sir ;
You do forget the noisy pother of mankind,
And win communion with sweet Nature’s self,
In plying our dear craft.”

And so not unfrequently, nay, it very often happens that
the angler is led to investigate the habits of the birds,
beasts, and insects, which present themselves to him as he
follows his vocation, and the marvels of the lives of the
innumerable creatures which tenant the earth, air, and
water ; and thus he becomes an enthusiastic, though, of
course, not always a scientific naturalist ; while the trees of
the forest and the flowers of the field are another endless
source of interest and study.

And further, though all anglers cannot be credited with
the piety of Walton, there can be little doubt but that very
many, as Pope writes, “look through Nature up to Nature’s
God.” The old lines which date back as far as 1706, are
in the main still true :—

“ Angling tends our bodies to exercise,
And also souls to make holy and wise,
By heavenly thoughts and meditation—
This is the angler’s recreation.”

And many of those who seek recreation with their angle
amid the works of nature, realise the words and thoughts
of old John Dennys, where he says :—

> “ All these and many more of his creation,
That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see,
And takes therin no little delectation
To think how strange and wonderfull they bee,
Framing thereof an inward contemplation
To set his thoughts on other fancies free ;

And while he looks on these with joyful eye,
His mind is wrapt above the starry skie.”

110) =LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Thus there is a certain tendency for the angler to become
a poet, or at least to become imbued with poetic feelings
springing from an elevated source.

The early English poets can hardly be expected to con-
tribute much to the literature of the angle; but here is
a little bit from Chaucer’s Complaynte of Mars and Venus

(1475) —

“ Hit semeth he hath to lovers enemyti,
And lyke a fissher, as men al may se,
Bateth hys angle-hoke with summe pleasaunce
Til mony a fissch ys wode so that he be
Sesed therwith ; and then at erst hath he
Al his desire, and therwith al myschaunce,
And thogh the lyne breke he hath penaunce ;
For with the hoke he wounded is so sore,
That he his wages hathe for evermore.”

And one from John Gower (1483) :—

“ And as the fisher on his bait
Sleeth, when he first seeth the fishes taste,
So when he seeth time ate last,
That he may worche an other wo,
Shall no man tornen him ther fro,
That hate will his felonie
Fulfill and feigne compaignie.”

Nor must we expect much piscatory poetry in the six-
teenth century. Spencer can hardly be claimed by the
angling fraternity as one of their songsters, though the
contemplation of the multitudes of the various inhabitants

of the waters made him exclaim—

“Oh what an endlesse work has he in hand
Who’d count the sea’s abundant progeny,
Whose fruitful seed far passeth that on land,
And also theirs that roame in th’ azure sky,—
So fertile be the floods in generation,
So vast their numbers, and so numberless their nation.”

»

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. eet

He sings, too, of “the Medwaies silver streams,” in which
the nymphs were wont—

“With hook or net, barefooted wantonly
The pleasant dainty fish to entangle or deceive.”

But Francis Quarles may fairly be claimed by anglers
as a poet-angler, as he not only caught but sang of

“The broad-side bream,
The wary trout, that thrives against the stream ;”

and of

“ The well grown carp, full laden with her spawn.”

He lived on well in the seventeenth century, and, judging
from the style, there can be little doubt but that Walton
wrote the “Address to the Reader” of his Skhepherd’s
Eclogues, which were printed in 1646 by John and Richard
Marriott, the latter of whom was Walton’s publisher and
intimate friend.

Just before the close of the sixteenth century we find the
following in Sabie’s /zsherman’s Tale (1595). After describ-
ing the delight of a spring morning, the poet continues :—

“ T shakt off sleepe, and tooke in hand a reede,
A reede whereto was bounde a slender line,
And crooked hooke, wherewyth, for my disport,
Walking along the bankes of silver lakes,
Oftimes I vsed, with false deceiuing baytes,
To pluck bright-scaled fish from christall waves.
Forthwith I bended steps vnto the streames,
And pleasant meares, not far from mine abode,
Needless it were here to rehearse what joyes
Each thing brought then vnto my dolefull minde.
The little menowes leapt aboue the waues
And sportive fish like wanton lambes did play.”

Old Michael Drayton, whom Charles Lamb eulogises
as the panegyrist of his native land, is in full song at the

12 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

beginning of the seventeenth century, his Polyolbion having
been published in 1613. Hymning many rivers, “our
flood’s Queen, Thames,” “the stately Severn,” and “the
crystal Trent,” he naturally sings of their inhabitants,
mention being made of them in the 6th, 25th, and 26th
“Songs” of the Polyolbion, and other of his compositions.
In one he introduces a woodman, a shepherd, and a fisher-
man, each extolling the merits of his vocation; and it is
just possible that Walton got from this his idea of “inter-
locutors.” Anyhow, he was on intimate terms with Walton,
who speaks of him as “Michael Drayton, my honest old
friend,” just before quoting from.the Polyolbion the descrip-
tion of the salmon leaping, which runs thus :—
“ And when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find

(Which hither from the sea comes, yearly, by his kind),

As he towards season grows ; and stems the wat’ry tract

Where 77zvy, falling down, makes an high cataract,

Forc’d by the rising rocks that there her course oppose,

As tho’ within her bounds they meant her to inclose ;

Here, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive,

And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive,

His tail takes in his mouth, and, bending like a bow

That’s to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw,

Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand

That bended end to end, and started from man’s hand,

Far off itself doth cast ; so does the Salmon vault :

And if, at first, he fail, his second summersault

He instantly essays, and, from his nimble ring

Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling

Above the opposing stream.”

We hope we shall not be considered guilty of heresy
when we venture to suggest that these lines seem to lag
somewhat, wanting in a kind of “ quickness” which would
be suitable to the subject. His enumeration of the various
fish which inhabit the Trent, second only as it is to the

Thames for its prolificness in variety of species, is always

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 113

worth quoting ; and it is strange that several authors on
angling make the mistake of associating the passage with
the Severn. It occurs in the 26th song; and the river
goddess or rather the river personified, thus sings her own
praises with a good deal of haughtiness, beginning with the
fanciful idea that her name is the French ¢rente.

“ What should I care at all, from what my name I take,
That 7hzr¢y doth import, that thirty rivers make
My greatness what it is, or thirty abbeys great,
That on my fruitful banks, times formerly did seat :
Or thirty kinds of fish, that in my streams do live,

To me this name of 7vezd¢ did from that number give.”
* ™ * * * *

After comparing herself with the Thames and Severn
from a geographical point of view, the self-complacent

lady goes on to say—

‘* Their banks are barren sands, if but compar’d with mine
Through my perspicuous breast, the pearly pebbles shine ;
I throw my crystal arms along the flow’ry valleys
Which lying sleek, and smooth, as any garden-alleys,
Do give me leave to play, whilst they do court my stream,
And crown my winding banks with many an anadem :
My sliver-scaléd skuls about my streams do sweep,

Now in the shallow fords, now in the falling deep :

So that of every kind, the new-spawwd numerous fry
Seem in me as the sands that on my shore do lie.

The Baréel/, than which fish, a braver doth not swim,
Nor greater for the ford within my spacious brim,

Nor (newly taken) more the curious taste doth please ;
The Greding, whose great spawn is big as any pease ;
The Pearch with pricking fins, against the Pike prepar’d,
As nature had thereon bestow’d this stronger guard,
His daintiness to keep (each curious palate’s proof),
From his vile ravenous foe: next him I name the Aufe,
His very near ally, and both for scale and fin,

In taste, and for his bait (indeed) his next of kin ;

The pretty slender Dare, of many call’d the Dace,
Within my liquid glass, when Phcebus looks his face,

14 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER-FISHING.

Oft swiftly as he swims, his silver belly shows,
But with such nimble sleight, that ere ye can disclose
His shape, out of your sight like lightning he is shot.
The Zrout by Nature mark’d with many a crimson spot,
As though she curious were in him above the rest,
And of fresh-water fish did note him for the best ;
The Roche, whose common kind to every flood doth fall ;
The Chub (whose neater name), which some a Chevzx call,
Food to the tyrant Pze (most being in his power),
Who for their numerous store he most doth them devour ;
The lusty Sa/mon then, from Veftuze’s wat’ry realm,
When as his season serves, stemming my tideful stream,
Then being in his kind, in me his pleasure takes,

For whom the fisher then all other game forsakes)
Which bending of himself to th’ fashion of a ring,
Above the forcéd wears, himself doth nimbly fling,
And often when the net hath dragg’d him safe to land,

Is seen by natural force to ’scape his murd@gers’ hand ;
Whose grain doth rise in flakes, with fatness interlarded,
Of many a liquorish lip, that highly is regarded.
And Humber, to whose waste I pay my wat’ry store,

Me of her Sturvgeons sends, that I thereby the more
Should have my beauties grac’d, with something from him sent:
Not Azcum’s silvered /el exceedeth that of 7rent ;
Though the sweet-smelling S7ze/¢ be more in Tames than me,
The Lamprey, and his /ess, in Severne general be ;
The Flounder smooth and flat, in other rivers caught,
Perhaps in greater store, yet better are not thought :
The dainty Gudgeon, Loche, the Minnow, and the Bleake,
Since they but little are, I little need to speak

Of them, nor doth it fit me much of those to reck,
Which everywhere are found in every little beck ;

Nor of the Crayfish here, which creeps amongst my stones,
From all the rest alone, whose spell is all his bones :

For Carfe, the Tench, and Breame, my other store among,
To lakes and standing pools, that chiefly do belong,

Here scouring in my fords, feed in my waters clear

Are muddy fishing ponds to that which they are here.”

In reference to this passage, it may be noted that, owing
to certain reasons, Trent salmon gradually became very

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 115

scarce some years ago; but they have shown in greater
numbers during the last two or three seasons; and it is
evident that under proper treatment the Trent might be
made a good salmon river. There are no Crayfish in the
Trent now, and probably never were, notwithstanding what
Drayton puts into the mouth of the lady river. The “less”
mentioned in connection with the J/amprey means the
lamperne.

Milton can hardly be called a piscatorial poet, though he
sings of the evolutions of the myriads of “the voiceless
daughters of the unpolluted sea” (A%schylus), which—

“ Part single or with mate
Graze the seaweed, their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray ; or sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropp’d with gold ;
Or from their pearly shells come forth to seek

Moist nutriment ; or under rocks their food,
In jointed armour watch.”

But, oh, the fall from Milton to William Browne! and
yet the author of Lrztannia’s Pastorals, published 1613, may
claim some attention from angling readers, who, however,
will hardly think that a pike in the following passage is a
good selection as a worm-taking fish, or the suggestion that

the line should be handled a proper one—

“ Now as an Azgler, melancholy standing,
Upon a greene bancke yeelding roome for landing,
A wrigling yealow worme thrust on his hooke
Now in the midst he throwes, then in a nooke ;
Here puls his line, there throwes it in againe,
Mendeth his Corke and Baite, but all in vaine,
He long stands viewing of the curled stream ;
At last a hungry Pzke, or well-growne Lreame,
Snatch at the worme, and hasting fast away,
He, knowing it a Fish of stubborne sway,
Puls up his rod, but soft ; (as having skill) ;
Wherewith the hooke fast holds the Fishe’s gill—

116 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Then all his line he freely yeeldeth him,

Whilst furiously all up and downe doth swimme
Th’ insnared Fish, here on the toppe doth scud,
There underneath the banckes, then in the mud ;
And with his franticke fits so scares the shole,
That each one takes his Zyde or starting hole ;
By this the Pzke cleane wearied, underneath

A Willow lyes, and pants (if Fishes breath),
Wherewith the Axzgler gently puls him to him ;
And least his hast might happen to undoe him
Layes downe his rod, then takes his line in hand,
And by degrees getting the Fish to land,

Walks to another Poole, at length is winner

Of such a dish as serves him for his dinner.”

We have already anticipated the Secrets of Angling, by
J. D., in Chapter III., for the reason there given ; and we will
now pass on to Phineas Fletcher—a by no means poetical
name—who published his Szce/zdes, a piscatory, in 1631,
and the Purple Island, “together with Piscatorie Eclogs,”
in 1633. He is mentioned as “an excellent divine and an
excellent angler,’ by Walton, who also calls his Eclogues
“excellent”; and Quarles speaks of him as “the Spencer
of this age.” This is part of his picture of the happiness of
the angler’s life :—

“ His certain life, which never can deceive him,
Is full of thousand sweets and rich content ;
The smooth-leav'd beeches in the field receive him
With coolest shade, till noontide’s heat be spent.
His life is neither tost on boist’rous seas
Of the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease ;
Pleas’d and full blest he lives, when he his God can please.”
“ His bed, more safe than soft, yields quiet sleeps,
While by his side his faithful spouse has place,
His little son into his bosom creeps,
The lively picture of his father’s face.
Never his humble roof nor state torment him

Less he could like, if less his fate had lent him,
And when he dies, green turfs with grassy tomb content him.”

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 117

H. Vaughan, “the Silurist,’ also, in 1640, sings the
happiness of the contented angler :—

“* On shady banks sometimes he lyes,
Sometimes the open current tyes,
Where with his line and feathered flye
He sports and takes the scaly fry.”

He also wrote some charming Latin verses on a salmon
which he caught himself, and sent to his friend Dr.
Powell.

The song written by Dr. Donne in 1635, and quoted by
Walton, is worth reproducing :—

“Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

“There will the river whisp’ring run,

~ Warm’d by the eyes more than the sun ;
And there the enamel’d fish will stay
Begging themselves they may betray.

“When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Most amorously to thee will swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

“ If thou to be so seen, beest loath
By sun or moon, thou dark’nest both ;
And if mine eyes have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

“ Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snares or windowy net ;

“ Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest,
The bedded fish in banks outwrest ;
Let curious traitors sleave silk flies,

To ’witch poor wand’ring fishes’ eyes.

118 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

“For thee, thou need’st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait :
That fish that is not catcht thereby,
Is wiser far, alas, than I.”

This is quoted by Walton in the “Fourth Day,” and it
is in imitation of that sung by the milkmaid in the “ Third
Day,” which is attributed to the sweet-singing Christopher
Marlowe.

And now we must refer to Izaak Walton himself as a
poet in verse, though the Complete Angler itself is sufficient
to testify to him as one in prose, for, as Coleridge said, the
true antithesis of poetry is not prose, but science. This is
“The Angler’s Wish,” which first appeared in the third
edition, and was, as he (P7scator) says, of his own “com-
posure.”

“T in these flowery meads would be :
These crystal streams should solace me ;
To whose harmonious bubbling noise
I with my angle would rejoice :

Lit here, and see the turtle-dove
Court his chaste mate to acts of love:

“Or, on that bank, feel the west wind
Breathe health and plenty : please my mind,
To see sweet dewdrops kiss these flowers,
And then washed off by April showers :
Here, hear my Kenna sing a song ;
There, see a blackbird feed her young,
Or a leverock build her nest :

Here, give my weary spirits rest,

And raise my low-pitch’d thoughts above

Earth, and what poor mortals love :
Thus free from lawsuits and the noise
Of princes’ courts, I would rejoice :

“Or, with my Bryan, and a book,
Loiter long days near Shawford-brook ;
There sit by him, and eat my meat,
There see the sun both rise and set :

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 119

There bid good morning to next day ;
There meditate my time away,

And angle on ; and beg to have

A quiet passage to a welcome grave.”

In the “Fourth Day” Piscator sings another song, which
begins—
“O the gallant fisher’s life !
This the best of any,” &c.

This was chiefly written by J. Chalkhill, but from what
Piscator says after singing it, to the effect that he had
forgotten part of it, and was forced to “ patch it up” of his
“own invention,” it is evident that a considerable portion of
the words is Walton’s. They bear additional testimony to
his poetical talents.

It may not be out of place here to quote two or three
stanzas of the “Anglers Song” (by some anonymous
author), which occurs in the “ Third Day” :—

* As inward love breeds outward talk ;
The hound some praise, and some the hawk,
Some, better pleas’d with private sport,
Use tennis ; some a mistress court :
But these delights I neither wish
Nor envy, while I freely fish.

“Who hunts doth oft in danger ride ;
Who hawks lures oft both far and wide :
Who uses games shall often prove
A loser ; but who falls in love

Is fetter’d in fond Cupid’s snare :
My angle breeds me no such care.

“ Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone
All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess ;
My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.

1200 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

““T care not, I, to fish in seas—
Fresh rivers best my mind do please,
Whose sweet calm course I contemplate,
And seek in life to imitate ;
In civil bounds I fain would keep,
And for my past offences weep.

“ But yet, though while I fish, I fast,
I make good fortune my repast ;
And thereunto my friend invite,
In whom I more than that delight ;
Who is more welcome to my dish
Than to my angle was my fish.”

The “Angler’s Song,” beginning with the words “ Man’s
life is but vain,” &c., which occurs in the “Fourth Day,”
appears in the first edition of Zhe Complete Angler. The
music, with old-fashioned diamond-headed notes, is curiously
printed, that for two voices being on one page (216) in the
ordinary way, but that for the other voice, on the next page
(217), is printed upside down, so that the singers standing
opposite to one another, and holding the book, would each
have his own music properly presented to him.

Cotton, Walton’s friend and literary coadjutor, also
wooed the muses, though perhaps not with great success.
In his Retitrement—“Stanzes Irreguliers to Mr. Izaak
Walton ”—he shows poetic feeling, but some disregard of
rhythm. His favourite river, the Dove, and his desire to dwell
for ever quietly, is his theme. He exclaims in Dovedale :—

“ Good God ! how sweet are all things here !
How beautiful the fields appear !
How cleanly do we feed and lie !
Lord ! what good hours do we keep !
How quietly we sleep !
What peace! what unanimity !
How innocent from the lewd fashion
Is all our business, all our recreation !

Bo a + *

ENGLAST POETS ON FISHING. 121

“Oh my beloved nymph ; fair Dove ;
Princess of rivers, how I love
Upon thy flowery banks to lie ;

And view thy silver stream,

When gilded by a summer’s beam,

And in it all thy wanton fry
Playing at liberty

And, with my angle, upon them
The all of treachery

I ever learnt, industriously to try.

Most Midland people (as the writer observed when
recently paying a piscatorial visit to Shardlow, on the
Trent) pronounce the o in Dove like the o in “rove,” but
here Cotton makes “Dove” rhyme with “love,” as ordi-
narily sounded.

Another of Cotton’s angling pieces begins with the
stanza—
“* Away to the brook,
All your tackle outlook ;
Here’s a day that is worth a year’s wishing.
See that all things be right,
For ’tis a very spight
To want tools when a man goes a-fishing.”
And further on we are hurried—
“ Away, then away,
We lose sport by delay ;
But first leave our sorrows behind us ;
If misfortune do come,
We are all gone from home,
And a-fishing she never can find us.”

Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton College, another
intimate friend of Walton, and an ardent angler, discoursed
well both in prose and poetry. of his favourite pasiime.
Walton quoted him in the “First Day” and elsewhere.
Here are two pretty stanzas :—

“This day dame Nature seem’d in love ;
The lusty sap began to move ;
Fresh juice did stir th’ embracing vines ;
And birds had drawn their valentines.

122 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

“The jealous trout, that low did lie,
Rose at a well-dissembled fly ; ,
There stood my Friend, with patient skill,
Attending of his trembling quill.”

The “ Friend” was probably Walton.

Though hardly to be called poetry, the following lines of
“Napour Notpole,” written in old Barker’s Delights, are
very truthful up to the present hour :—

“Cards, dice, and tables pick thy purse,
Drinking and drabbing being a curse ;
Hawking and hunting spend thy chink,
Bowling and shooting end in drink.
The fighting-cock and the horse-race
Will sink a good estate a-pace ;
Angling doth bodyes exercise,

And maketh soules holy and wise

By blessed thoughts and meditation.
This, this the angler’s recreation ;
Health, profit, pleasure, mix’t together,
All sports to this not worth a feather.”

Waller, whose poem “On a Girdle” will live as long as
the English language, has among his J/editations one “ On
Fish,’ and as he has several allusions to angling in his
writings, he may be claimed for our purpose. We find
there were lady-anglers in his day, as he sings of the Court
beauties of Charles II.’s reign who angled—perhaps in
more ways than one—in St. James’s Park :—

“ Beneath, a shole of silver fishes glides,
And plays about the gilded barges sides ;
The ladies angling in the chrystal lake
Feast on the waters with the prey they take ;
At once victorious, with their lines and eyes,
They make the fishes and the men their prize.”

A propos of lady-anglers, who now number in their
increasing ranks the Marchioness of Lorne (Princess

Louise), and have been doing wondrous execution among

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 123

the salmon northwards this autumn, the following jez
@esprit by Mr. W.G. Clarke, late public orator at Cam-
bridge may be quoted here. The /7ze/d having announced
that the beautiful Miss
seventeen pounds weight, Mr. Clarke put these words into

had caught a salmon of

the dying fish’s mouth :—

“Not artificial flies my fancy took,
Nature’s own magic lured me to your hook ;
Play me no more—no thought to ’scape have I—
But land me, land me, at your feet to die.”
Sir Harris Nicolas, in his first edition of The Complete
Angler (1836), mentions a poem of Waller’s “On a Lady
fishing with an Angle,” commencing—

* See where the fair Clorinda sits.”

The MS., he says, was in the library of the Royal Society,
but he was unable to obtain a sight of it. The writer of
these notes regrets that he is unable to say whether such a
MS. really exists.

Is Bunyan, who wrote in the latter half of the seven-
teenth century, among the piscatory poets? At all events,
in his Apology for his Book he bids us observe the angler—

“You see the ways the Fisherman doth take
To catch the fish: what engines doth he make !
Behold! how he engageth all his wits :
Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks and nets ;
Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line,
Nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine ;
They must be grop’d for, and be tickled too
Or they will not be catch’d, whate’er you do.”

The Junocent Epicure, already alluded to in connection
with the authors of the Universal Angler (5th edition of
Complete Angler), was an anonymous poem on “ The Art of
Angling,” published in 1697. “ Antithetical periods and

124 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

smooth classicisms” are its features. Thus Esox luctus is
introduced—
“ Go on, my Muse, next let thy numbers speak
That mighty Nimrod of the streams, the Pike,”
and so forth.

Altogether, the piscatory poets of the seventeenth century
do not present a very strong list, though J. D. is a literary
host in himself. The dramatists of the period do not come
to our aid to any great degree, though passages from
‘rare” Ben Jonson, Dekkar, Beaumont and _ Fletcher,
Massinger, and others, as bearing on or illustrative of the
“ars piscatoria,” might be quoted. Shakespeare, however,
has been claimed as a poet of the angler, and as an angler
too. A large number of passages may be adduced from
his plays to illustrate him in the first-named character, and
these have been collected very recently in a charming little
book by the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe, M.A., entitled Shake-
speare as an Angler (Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row); and
the author has done his best to show that he was also a
follower of the gentle craft, arguing this from his use of
many technical angling terms, correct ichthyological de-
scriptions of fish, use of fishing proverbs, and his loving
descriptions of brooks and running streams and_ river
scenery. The little book will repay perusal at the hands
both of the lovers of Shakespeare and the lovers of the
angler, but the general impression will probably be that
the author somewhat labours in his self-imposed task, and
is open to the charge of proving too much.

It is a modern fashion to prove that Shakespeare was a
master and follower of almost every conceivable art, science
and pastime. Thus one author has elaborated the poet
“as a divine,” another “as a physician,” a third “as a
lawyer,” and so on, as a soldier, sailor, &c., ad tufinitum ,;

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 125

and Mr. Ellacombe has also worked him out “as a
gardener.” But though Dr. Johnson rightly said: “He
that will understand Shakespeare must not be content to
study him in the closet; he must look for his meaning
among the sports of the field ;” and, it might be added,
in the history and practice of all the subjects to which he
alludes ; still, we must not conclude that the poet neces-
sarily followed personally this or that particular vocation,
of the details of which he shows much intimate knowledge.
The truth is, that Shakespeare was a man of wondrous
and most comprehensive information on a multitude of
subjects, however he may have acquired it, and was able
to use the correct technical terms connected with any —
matter he handled. But to argue from such use, or from
that of proverbial and common-parlance expressions of his
day, that he was personally associated with any particular
matter to which they refer, strikes one as unreasonable as
to infer that a person must be given to horse-racing because
he uses phrases and expressions which the turf has caused
to become incorporated, as it were, with the English
language. Shakespeare is traditionally associated with
something more than a love of poaching, which seems still
an instinct in the nature of even civilised man; but it
would be manifestly unfair to say that he was given to
“foxing” trout, because he makes one of his characters in
Twelfth Night say—
“ Lie thou there ; for here comes the trout,
That must be caught with tickling.”

Very probably, indeed, Shakespeare, both in his carly and
latter years, fished in the Stratford Avon and elsewhere,
but that his writings show him to have been an angler
must be looked upon rather as a “pious opinion” rather
than as necessary to be held as an article of faith.

126 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

But this is somewhat of a digression; and we must get
on to the eighteenth century, which, though it has been
called a “leaden” period as regards literature generally, is
prolific of piscatory poets of no mean attainments. Among
these Pope may be first mentioned, as he was busy versi-
ficating at the beginning of it. His name rightly finds a
place in the Bibliotheca Piscatoria and he is likely long
to remain dear to a large body of anglers because he so
sweetly sings their favourite river, “Old Father Thames,”
and “The Fisher’s Punt.” The following passage from
Windsor Forest (1713) is known to all disciples of Izaak
Walton—

“In genial spring, beneath the quivering shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand,

Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :

With looks unmov’d, he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.
Our plenteous streams a various race supply—
The bright-ey’d perch, with fins of Tyrian dye ;
The silver eel, in shining volumes roll’d ;

The yellow carp, in scales bedropp’d with gold ;

Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains ;
And pikes, the tyrants of the wat’ry plains.

But Gay is specially the angler-poet of this period, and
perhaps it may be said the angler’s poet of all periods.
The stock-in-trade quotations, the well-known passages in
his writings descriptive of angling, never seem to tire. We
learn from himself the kind of fishing he best liked—

“TI never wander where the bord’ring reeds
O’erlook the muddy stream, whose tangling weeds
Perplex the fisher; I nor chuse to bear
The thievish nightly net, nor barbed spear ;
Nor drain I ponds the golden carp to take,
Nor trowle for pikes, dispeoplers of the lake.

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 127

Around the steel no tortur’d worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line.

Let me, less cruel, cast the feather’d hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,

And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.”

The above lines are from his Rural Sports, inscribed to
Pope (1720) ; and further on, in the same poem he describes
the fly-fisher, who ties his own flies on at the stream-side—

“* Mark well the various seasons of the year,
How the succeeding insect race appear.
In their revolving moon one colour reigns,
Which in the next the fickle trout disdains.
Oft have I seen a skilful angler try
The various colours of the treach’rous fly ;
When he with fruitless pain hath skimm’d the brook,
And the coy fish rejects the skipping hook,
He shakes the boughs that on the margin grow,
Which o’er the stream a waving forest throw ;
When, if an insect fall (his certain guide),
He gently takes him from the whirling tide ;
Examines well his form with curious eyes,
His gaudy vest, his wings, his horns, and size ;
Then round his hook the chosen fur he winds,
And on the back a speckled feather binds ;
So just the colours shine through every part,
That Nature seems to live again in Art.”

And the poet is evidently one of the “up-stream ”
fishing advocates, for he goes on—

“Far up the stream the twisted hair he throws,
Which down the murmuring current gently flows ;
When if or chance or hunger’s powerful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,

He greedily sucks in the twining bait,
And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat.”

128 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Not every poet would essay to describe the practical
work of fly-tying, but Gay does—
“You now a more delusive art must try,
And tempt their hunger with the curious fly.
To frame the little animal provide
All the gay hues that wait on female pride :
Let Nature guide thee ; sometimes golden wire
The shining bellies of the fly require ;
The peacock’s plumes thy tackle must not fail,
Nor the dear purchase of the sable’s tail.
Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings,
And lends the growing insect proper wings :
Silks of all colours must their aid impart,
And ev’ry fur promote the fisher’s art.
So the gay lady, with expensive care,
Borrows the pride of land, of sea, and air ;
Furs, pearls, and plumes, the glittering thing displays,
Dazzles our eyes, and easy hearts betrays.”

And this is how you must work your fly—

“ Let not thy wary step advance too near,
While all thy hope hangs on a single hair ;
The new-formed insect on the water moves,
The speckled trout the curious snare approves.
Upon the curling surface let it glide,
With nat’ral motion from thy hand supplied,
Against the stream now let it gently play,
Now in the rapid eddy roll away :
The scaly shoals float by, and, seized with fear,
Behold their fellows tost in thinner air ;
But soon they leap, and catch the swimming bait,
Plunge on the hook, and share an equal fate.”

But, though by choice a fly-fisher, Gay did not disdain to
use the worm, or to point out the proper kind of one for a
trout, and how to “scour ” it—

“ You must not every worm promiscuous use ;
Judgment will tell thee proper bait to choose ;
The worm that draws a long immodrrate size
The trout abhors, and the rank morsel flies ;

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 129

And if too small, the naked fraud’s in sight,

And fear forbids, while hunger does invite.
Those baits will best reward the fishe r’s pains
Whose polish’d tails a shining yellow stains:
Cleanse them from filth, to give a tempting gloss,
Cherish the sullied reptile race with moss ;

Amid the verdant bed they twine, they toil,

And from their bodies wipe their native soil.”

Our last extract must be the description of the angler’s
tussle with a big salmon—

“Tf an enormous salmon chance to spy
The wanton errors of the floating fly,
He lifts his silver gills above the flood
And greedily sucks in th’ unfaithful food,
Then downright plunges with the fraudful prey,
And bears with joy the little spoil away :
Soon in smart pain he feels the dire mistake,
Lashes the wave, and beats the foamy lake.
With sudden rage he now aloft appears,
And in his eye convulsive anguish bears :
And now again, impatient of the wound,
He rolls and wreaths his shining body round,
Then headlong shoots beneath the dashing tide ;
The trembling fins the boiling wave divide.
Now hope exalts the fisher’s beating heart,
Now he turns pale, and fears his dubious art ;
He views the tumbling fish with longing eyes,
While the line stretches with th’ unwieldy prize ;
Each motion humours with his steady hands,
And one slight hair the mighty bulk commands ;
Till tired at last, despoil’d of all his strength,
The game athwart the stream unfolds his length.
He now, with pleasure, views the gasping prize
Gnash his sharp teeth, and roll his blood-shot eyes ;
Then draws him to the shore, with artful care,
And lifts his nostrils in the sick’ning air :
Upon the burthen’d stream he floating lies,
Stretches his quivering fins, and gasping dies.”

K

190 VITERATOURELOL SEA AND RIVER LISHING.

Gay was a North Devon man, and doubtless worked its
many trout and salmon waters.

Thomson, who also lived in the early part of the
eighteenth century, was hardly less a poet of the angle
than Gay, and his experience as a fly-fisher, at least in his
early years, was gained north of the Tweed. A feature in
his Seasons (1728) are his descriptions of fishing. Thus in

“Spring” we have the invitation to angle—
D> t=)

“ Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks,
Swelled with the vernal rains, is ebb’d away ;
And, whitening, down their mossy-tinctur’d stream
Descends the billowy foam—now is the time,
While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile
To tempt the trout. The well dissembled fly ;
The rod, fine tapering, with elastic spring.
Snatch’d from the hoary stud the floating line,
And all thy slender wat’ry stores prepare.”

He shrinks, however, from the worm more than Gay
does—

“ But let not on thy hook the tortur’d worm
Convulsive twist in agonising folds,
Which, by rapacious hunger, swallow’d deep,
Gives, as you tear it, from the bleeding breast
Of the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch,
Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand !”

This is where and how the poet would have you throw
your fly—

“Just in the dubious point, where with the pool
Is mix’d the trembling stream, or where it boils
Around the stone, or from the hollow’d bank
Reverted plays in undulating flow—

There throw, nice judging, the delusive fly ;
And, as you lead it round in artful curve,
With eye attentive mark the springing game,

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 131

Straight as above the surface of the flood
They wanton rise, or, urged by hunger, leap
Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook ;
Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank,

And to the shelving shore slow dragging some,
With various hand proportion’d to their force.”

And now let us compare his description of the death of
a big trout, “the monarch of the brook,” with the death of
the salmon in the passage from Gay just above. After
recommending that little fish, if caught, should be replaced

in their native element, he proceeds :—

‘“¢ But should you lure
From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots
Of pendant trees, the monarch of the brook,
Behoves you then to ply your finest art.
Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly,
And oft attempts to seize it ; but as oft
The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear.
At last, while haply o’er the shaded sun
Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death
With sullen plunge : at once he darts along,
Deep struck, and runs out all the lengthen’d line,
Then seeks the farthest ooze, the sheltering weed,
The cavern’d bank, his old secure abode,
And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool,
Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand,
That feels him still, yet to his furious course
Gives way, you, now retiring, following now,
Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage,
Till, floating broad upon his breathless side
And to his fate abandon’d, to the shore
You gaily drag your unresisting prize.”

Both passages may be compared with a similar one from

Oppian, describing the death of a large anthia in Chapter I.

But we must go back a little chronologically, and mention

Whitney’s Genteel Recreation (1700), the rhymes of which
im 2

132 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

have been tersely and painfully described as being “in the
Bombastes Furioso style, and sufficiently ridiculous to be
somewhat amusing.’ Moses Browne (another unpoetical
name) published his Piscatory Eclogues in 1729. He is not
to be confounded with the William Browne of the last
century, whose productions Blakey in his Angling Litera-
ture confounds with those of Sannazarius, a translation of
whose Piscatory Eclogues appeared in 1726. Browne's
Eclogues are nine in number, and the author seems to have
made Virgil and Theocritus his models for composition.
They are very fair reading, especially when we remember
that the author produced them in his twenty-third year.
The following lines will give an idea of his style :—

“ When artful flies the angler would prepare,
The tack of all deserves his utmost skill ;
Nor verse nor prose can ever teach him well
What masters only know, and practice tell ;
Yet thus at large I venture to support,
Nature best follow’d best secures the sport.
Of flies—the kinds, their seasons, and their breed,
Their shapes, their hues, with nice observance heed ;
Which most the trout admires and where obtain’d,
Experience best will teach you, or some friend ;
For several kinds must every month supply,
So great’s his passion for variety ;
Nay, if new species on the stream you find,
Try—you'll acknowledge fortune amply kind.”

In 1733, Simon Ford, D.D., wrote a neat Latin poem
Piscatio, which he inscribed to Archbishop Sheldon, the
founder of the “Theatre” at Oxford, and a friend of
Walton’s, who mentions him in the “ Fourth Day” as having
“skill above others” in taking barbel. The Pzscatzo has
been translated and adapted several times. Williamson,

mentioned in Chapter V., was a bit of a poet, and some of

ENGEISH POETS ON FISHING.

133

the “versification”” of the principal subjects of each of the

chapters in his British Angler runs off pretty well. This is

how he versifies on silk and hair lines :—

“ Choose well your Hair, and know the vig’rous Horse,
Not only reigns in Beauty, but in Force ;
Reject the Hair of Beasts, e’en newly dead,
Where all the springs of Nature are decay’d.
Be sure for single Links the fairest chuse—
Such single Hairs will best supply your Use ;
And of the rest your sev’ral Lines prepare,
In all still less’ning ev’ry Link of Hair.
If for the Fly, be long and slight your Line,
The Fish is quick, and hates what is not fine ;
If for the Deep, to stronger we advise,
Tho’ still the Finest takes the Finest prize.
Before you twist your upper Links take care
Wisely to match in Length and Strength your hair ;
Hair best with Hair, and Silk with Silk agrees,
But mix’d have great Inconveniences.”

In 1774 an M.D., John Armstrong, in his Art of Pre-
serving [Tealth, like Kirke White, hymns the Trent, and

the “ Healthiness of Angling ”:—

“ But if the breathless chase o’er hill and dale
Exceed your strength, a sport of less fatigue,
Not less delightful, the prolific stream
Affords. The crystal rivulet, that o’er
A stony channel rolls its rapid maze,
Swarms with the silver fry ; such through the bounds
Of pastoral Stafford runs the brawling Trent ;
Such Eden, sprung from Cumbrian mountains ; such
The Esk, o’erhung with woods ; and such the stream
On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air—
Liddel, till now, except in Doric lays
Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains,
Unknown in song, though not a purer stream
Through meads more flowery, or more romantic groves,
Rolls towards the Western main. Hail, sacred flood !

134 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

May still thy hospitable swains be blessed

In rural innocence, thy mountains still

Teem with the fleecy race, thy tuneful woods

For ever flourish, and thy vales look gay

With painted meadows and the golden grain ;

Oft with thy blooming sons, when life was new,
Sportive and petulant, and charmed with toys,

In thy transparent eddies have I laved ;

Oft traced with patient steps thy fairy banks,

With the well-imitated fly to hook

The eager trout, and with the slender line

And yielding rod solicit to the shore

The struggling panting prey, while vernal clouds
And tepid gales obscured the ruffled pool,

And from the deeps called forth the wanton swarms,
Formed on the Samian school, or those of Ind.
There are who think these pastimes scarce humane ;
Yet in my mind (and not relentless I)

His life is pure that wears no fouler stains.”

Here we have the question of the “cruelty of fishing”
raised, in reference to which it has been said that the chief
pain which captured fish feel is that arising from the
thought of the terrible lies which anglers will tell of their
weights.

Following the example of clergymen of the Establish-
ment, Dr. Thomas Scott, a dissenting minister of Ipswich,
comes before us in 1775 as an angling author with his
Anglers

“eight dialogues in verse’’—very tolerable
reading. A feature of angling literature is the large
number of clergymen who have entered the lists both with
prose and verse productions. As “fishers of men” it
might be expected that they would occasionally handle
the angling pen, and the rod too. To their ranks belong
some of the best fishermen of past and present times.
The fox-hunting parson is almost an extinct being, though
a few of the persuasion still linger in the far west, and

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 135

lament their famous leader, the late Jack Russell ; and the
shooting parson is now under suspicion ; but a “little quiet
angling” is freely accorded on all sides to “the cloth.” A
very interesting book entitled 7/e Amusements of Clergy-
men, Was written in 1797, under the pseudonym of the
“Red Josiah Framptom,” by the Rev. William Gilpen,
Prebendary of Salisbury, and author of Forest Scenery,
which was reprinted a few years ago by Messrs. Sampson
Low, Marston & Co.

From Zhe Avon, a poem ascribed to the Rev. J. Huckell,
in 1789, we may take the following pretty lines as a
specimen of his work :—

“« See where serenely gay the Nymph invites
To more secure, tho’ less sublime delights.
The studious angler see, with pleasing care,
The flowing line and quiv’ring rod prepare.
Delightful task! When all the woodlands sing
The roseate beauties of inspiring spring.
Often may patience, wisdom’s meek-eyed friend
To ev’ry fam’d recess his steps attend ;
And then, propitious to the vot’ry’s skill,
Flow soft, ye waters, and, ye winds, be still !”

Though it does not come within the category of English
poetry, we will conclude our notice of the period through
which we have been glancing with a few lines of transla-
tion from a poem of Delille, a charming French writer, at
the close of the eighteenth century :—

“ Beneath yon willow pale, whose foliage dank
Gives added freshness to the river’s bank,
The fisher stands, and marks upon the tide
The trembling line along the current glide ;—
With mute attention, and with secret joy,
He views the bending rod and sinking buoy.
Which watery guest has braved the sudden fate
Fixed to the barb that lurks beneath the bait ?

1336 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

The springing trout, or carp bedecked with gold ;
Or does the perch his purpled fins unfold ?

Or silver eel that winds through many a maze,
Or pike voracious on his kind that preys ?”

Somerville, who sounded his horn in The Chace at the
beginning of the present century, and has somewhat
irreverently been called “the poet of the pigskin,” has not
forgotten angling among his Fve/d Sports ; and Clifford, in
his Angler, “a didactic poem,” in 1804, has immortalised
himself by putting on record his want of appreciation of
J. D’s Secrets. In 1819, one Thomas Pike (rightly so
called “the appropriator”) Lathy distinguished himself
by publishing Zhe Angler, the great bulk of which was
a mere transcription of Doctor Scott’s book just men-
tioned, with “heads” and “tails” prefixed and suffixed
to the different cantos. He palmed the book off on a
confiding bookseller, who suffered in consequence. In
the same year an officer of the Royal Navy, T. W.
Charleton, left salt water for fresh, and produced a by no
means unreadable poem, entitled The Art of Fishing,
something in the style of John Dennys, but not nearly so
good a production. In the collected poems of Professor
Wilson (Christopher North), 1825, so many of which are
devoted more or less to angling, we find 7he Angler's Tent,
first published in 1812, a quotation from which will serve to

show the author’s style and spirit :—

“ Yes! dear to us that solitary trade,
*Mid vernal peace in peacefulness pursued
Through rocky glen, wild moor, and hanging wood,
White-flowering meadow, and romantic glade !
The sweetest visions of our boyish years
Come to our spirits with a murmuring tone
Of running waters ; and one stream appears,
Remember’d all—tree, willow, bank, and stone ;

HNGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 137

How glad were we, when, after sunny showers,
Its voice came to us issuing from the school !
How fled the vacant, solitary hours,

By dancing rivulet, or silent pool !

And still our souls retain in manhood’s prime
The love of joys our childish years that blest ;
So now encircled by these hills sublime,

We Anglers, wandering with a tranquil breast,
Build in this happy vale a fairy bower of rest !
Within that bower are strewn, in careless guise,
Idle one day, the angler’s simple gear ;

Lines that, as fine as floating gossamer,

Dropt softly on the stream the silken flies ;
The limber rod that shook its trembling length,
Almost as airy as the line it threw,

Yet often bending in an arch of strength

When the tired salmon rose at last to view,
Now lightly leans across the rushy bed,

On which at night we dream of sports by day ;
And, empty now, beside it close is laid

The goodly pannier framed of osiers gray ;
And maple bowl in which we’re wont to bring
The limpid water from the morning wave,

Or from some mossy and sequester’d spring

To which dark rocks a grateful coolness gave,
Such as might Hermit use in solitary cave!
And ne’er did Hermit, with a purer breast,
Amid the depths of sylvan silence pray,

Than prayed we friends on that mild quiet day,
By God and man beloved, the day of rest !

Thomas Tod Stoddart, mentioned in the last chapter,
was almost as good a poet as he was an angler; and
Professor Wilson, whom we have just quoted, considered
his Soxgs and Poems, published in 1839, “among the best
ever written.” Here is one of them :—

“ Where torrents foam
While others roam
Among the yielding heather ;
Some river meek

We'll forth and seek,
And lay our lines together.

138 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Some sylvan stream,
Where shade and gleam
Are blended with each other,
Below whose bank
The lilies rank
All humbler flowers ensmother.

Where cushats coo

And ringdoves woo
The shining channel over,

From leafy larch

Or birchen arch—
Their unmolested cover.

There daily met,
No dark regret
Shall cloud our noon of pleasure ;
We'll carry rule
O’er stream and pool,
And none to claim a measure.

With tackless care
On chosen hair,
March fly and minnow tender,
We shall invite
The scaly wight
To eye them and surrender.

And when out-worn
We'll seek some thorn
With shadow old and ample—
The natural ground,
Moss laid around,

An angler’s resting temple !

In Remarks on Shooting, in Verse, by W. Watt, in 183),
we have a poem of some length on “ Trolling.” He seems
to be one of that class of writers who have an idea that
anything which rhymes is poetry ; and though his descrip-
tion of the tackle and the way of using it in this branch
of angling is correct enough, the poem is hardly worth
reading. The author writes very prosaic poetry ; but must

be credited with originality of design in producing the

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 139

“Game Laws Versified,” in forty-eight sections. Pulman’s
Book of the Axe (1841), and various poems on angling
subsequently published, only claim passing mention.

The Newcastle Fishers Garlands are a series of songs or
poems chiefly in praise of the Coquet, and emanated from
the Waltonian Club, established in Newcastle-on-Tyne in
the year 1821-22. The custom seems to have been to
publish a Garland annually, the first of which appeared
in 1821 in form of a single-sheet broadside. It com-

IMNenCes——
“ Auld nature now revivéd seems,”

and was the joint production of Robert Roxby and Thomas
Doubleday, who were also the authors of most of the
single Garlands to the year 1832, when the series
terminated. They were published in a collected form in
the year 1836, with Boaz’s Azglers Progress, a childish
poem written in 1789, prefixed to them as the Garland
for 1820. In 1742 an attempt was made to revive the
series, but it failed after two or three years. However, in
the year just named, the original publishers of the Gar-
lands brought out A Collection of Right Merrie Garlands
for North-Country Anglers, adding to the original a’ mis-
cellaneous collection of songs, Doubleday again being a
contributor. The best of the Roxby and Doubleday
Garlands were republished in the Coguetdale Fishing
Songs in 1852; and in 1864 Mr. Joseph Crawhall again
reproduced the Collection of Right Merrie Garlands, &e.,
with songs and poems added mainly by himself and
Doubleday, T. Westwood being also a contributor, and
styled them by the old title of the Mezwcastle Fishers’
Garlands, assigning one, and sometimes two, to each year
to 1864 inclusive. Thus we have what the Devonshire folk

would call “a mixed medley ;’ and the compositions, it

1440 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

must be confessed, are of very unequal merit, though many
of them strike sympathetic chords. They are about fifty
in number, and here is one of Doubleday’s, entitled “The
Fisher’s Call” (1828), taken almost at haphazard :—

“ The thorn is in the bud,
The palm is in the bloom,
The primrose, in the shade,
Unfolds her dewy bosom ;
Sweet Cogue?’s purling clear,
And summer music making ;
The trout has left his lair,
Then waken, fishers, waken !

The lavrock’s in the sky,

And on the heath the plover,
The bee upon the thyme,

The swallow skimming over ;
The farmer walks the field,

The seed he’s casting steady,
The breeze is blowing west,

Be ready, fishers, ready !

The violet’s in her prime,

And April is the weather ;
The partridge on the wing,

The muircock in the heather ;
The sun’s upon the pool

His morning radiance wasting,
It’s glittering like the gold,

Oh, hasten, fishers, hasten !

The Fe/ton lads are up,

They’re looking to their tackle ;
The sawmon’s in the stream,

And killing is the hackle.
If there’s a feat to do,

Tis Weldon boys should do it ;
Then up and rig your gads,

And to it, fishers, to it !”

Here is another, by W. A. Chatto, which originally
appeared in his book on Fly-Fishing tm Northumber-

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. I4t

land, &c., in 1834, under the title of “The Angler’s Invita-

tion. —

“ The wild bull his covert in Chillingham wood

Has left, and now browses the daisy-strew’d plain ;

The May-fly and swallow are skimming the flood,
And sweet in the hedge blooms the hawthorn again ;

The young lambs are skipping on Cheviot’s broad mountain,
The heather springs green upon Wiztsun-bank side ;

The streams are as clear as the lime-stone rock fountain,
And sweet is the palm-blossom’s scent where they glide.

Oh, leave for awhile the dull smoke of the city ;
Sons of gain, quit your desks, and your ledgers lay by,
Seek health in the fields while each bird sings its ditty,
And breathe the pure air underneath the broad sky ;
Sons of pleasure, come view the sweet primroses springing,
Leave the scene where the light figuranté whirls round ;
Come, list to the lark in the blue ether singing,
Come, see how the deer in the green forest bound.

The glad trout is roaming in every clear stream,

And the grilse and the salmon now drink the May flood ;
Then, anglers, be up with the sun’s early beam,

Let your flies be in trim and your tackle be good ;
In 77z?Z there’s good store of fat trouts to be won,—

Let your skill load your creels as you wander along,—
And at night, as you tell of the feats you have done,

Cheer your talk with a cup of good wine and a song.”

While among the angling poets of the north, who seem
to have been among the most enthusiastic of their tribe,
we may here mention, though a little out of chronological
order, the Chaplets from Croquet-side, by Joseph Crawhall,
published in 1873. The following quaintly dainty little
bit would almost make worm-fishing allowable in the

crystal streams flowing from Parnassus itself : —

“ The flee’s been sung in mony a strain,
The mennum owre an’ owre again

142 LITERATURE OF SEA.AND RIVER FISHING.

Has been the poet’s theme :
Gentles, and pastes, and viler roe
Hae had their praises sung enow

In drumlie verse and stream,
But let us sing ¢ke worm in June,

Auld Coquet crystal clear ;

All leafy Nature’s now in tune,

Now doth true skill appear.

Sae moyley an’ coyly

Steal on the gleg-e’ed trout ;
Eele'sees ye,an’ tees) ye—

Gif no—ye'll pick him out. :

“ Just as the early, tuneful lark,
Dame Nature’s vocal chapel-clerk,
Carols his hymn of praise,
Just as the dews frae flowers distil,
And air recovers frae nights chill,
Thro’ Pheebus’ slantin’ rays ;
W? weel-graithed gear up stream then hie,
Unerring cast the lure ;
The barely covered spanzkers lie
Unwatchfully secure.
Then lungin’ and plungin’
You feel the finny prize,
Now gantin’ an’ pantin’
Stretched on his side he dies.

“ Straight as a sapling fir your wand,
Mid-teens o’ feet, and light to hand,
With hook of ample size,
Inserted just below the head
Of worm, well scoured and purplish red,
Like arrow sourceward flies,

Swift with the current see it wear,
Then trembling, mid-stream stay,
That instant strike—my life, he’s there.

At leisure creelward play.
Then stay there an’ play there,
Enjoy thy latest cast,
For the worm aye, in turn aye,
Will conquer a’ at last.”

ENGLISH. POETS ON FISHING. 143

Blakey published his Azgler’s Song Book in 1855, con-
taining nearly two hundred and fifty songs and poems of
various degrees of merit, and some of no merit at all,
ranging from John Dennys down to Wordsworth. The
collection, as a whole, is not one of which anglers can feel
very proud.

The Songs of the Edinburgh Club (1851), a new and
enlarged edition of which was published in 1879, is the last
collection we shall mention. This club was founded in
1847, and the volume was “ privately printed for members,”
whose angling headquarters is “The Nest,” on a famous
stretch of the Tweed rented by the club. Our quotations
from angling poets have already extended to so great a
length that we must forbear to quote but a few lines from
this elegant volume, which is full of suggestiveness of love
of nature, love of angling, and love of the brotherhood of
anglers, while at the same time it is to be prized for the
faultless typography and exquisite engravings. This is the
concluding “L’Envoy ”—

“Tis time to part ; the fleeting hours
Too soon have sped their course along ;
Yet surely we have tipped their wings
With golden mirth and silv’ry song.
Old Time, upon his labouring course,
Might pause to gaze on scenes so bright
And hours like these. But, no, he’s past,
And we must part—Good night! Good night!

“We'll meet again ; you know the spot,
Where rolls the river broad and fair,
Where peeps the modest violet,
And hawthorn blossoms scent the air.
Again with song and mirth we'll crown
Our long, long days of calm delight.
But now, alas! ’tis time to part,
To each and all—Good night! Good night ! ”

144 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

The Honble. and Rev. Robert Liddell is another clergy-
man among the poets of the Angle. He published the
first canto of The Lay of the Last Angler, as a “tribute
to the Tweed at Melrose,” at the end of the season of 1867.
The third canto appeared in 1874; but they were all
printed “for private circulation only.” They afford a rich
poetical treat to any angler who is fortunate enough to get
hold of a copy.

Numerous angling songs and poems by different modern
writers have appeared during the last few years in the
pages of magazines and newspapers more or less devoted
to national pastimes, both here and in America. Many of
them are of great beauty, and will perhaps appear in some
more permanent form. We must restrain our desire to
quote them, contenting ourselves with the following lines
on a humble brook, by Carl Waring, published in the Ameti-

can Forest and Stream :—

“ You see it first near the dusty road,
Where the farmer stops with his heavy load
At the foot of a weary hill ;
There the mossy trough it overflows,
Then away with a leap and a laugh it goes
At its own sweet wandering will.

“It flows through an orchard gnarl’d and old,
Where in the spring the dainty buds unfold
Their petals pink and white ;
The apple blossoms so sweet and pure,
The streamlet’s smiles and songs allure,
To float off on the ripples bright.

“Tt winds through the meadow scarcely seen,
For o’er it the flowers and grasses lean
To salute its smiling face ;
And thus, half hidden, it ripples along,
The whole way singing its summer song,
Making glad each arid place.

ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 145

“ Just there, where the water dark and cool
Lingers a moment in yonder pool,
The dainty trout are at play ;
And now and then one leaps in sight,
With sides aglow in the golden light
Of the long sweet summer day.

“Oh, back to their shelves those books consign,
And look to your rod and reel and line,
Make fast the feather’d hook !
Then away from the town, with its hum of life,
Where the air with worry and work is rife,
To the charms of the meadow brook !”

As regards the poetical literature of angling which we
have reviewed, it would be mere affectation to say that we
should be satisfied with it as a whole. It is true that there
is considerable interest in it from a bibliographical point of
view, and that the contributions of several writers are good
examples of true poetic feeling and diction; but at the
same time there is a plethora of what is mere doggerel,
stiltedness, and affectation. Anglers themselves, however,
who form no inconsiderable portion of the community, may
be congratulated on the high testimony the poets have
borne to their favourite recreation ; and it is not likely that
a vates sacer will ever be wanting to their ranks. As time
passes on, and prose works on angling multiply, in like
manner we may expect the stream of poetic literature to
flow on, as the contemplative man’s recreation is in its
surroundings and associations conducive to the develop-
ment of poetic temperament and feeling.

In this and the two previous chapters the majority of—
and, indeed, almost all—the authors mentioned were them-
selves anglers, as might naturally be expected. By way
of a note, we may here give the names of a few more or
less eminent literary men who, though not authors on
angling, have pursued the gentle craft. For instance,

L

146 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Dryden, Bacon, George Herbert, Sir Isaac Newton, Pepys,
Dean Swift, Hollingshed, Sheridan, Sir Aubrey Carlisle,
Archdeacon Paley, Sir Walter Scott, Hogg the Ettrick
Shepherd, and the first Lord Lytton, who in. more than
one passage in his “Eugene Aram” pictures fly-fishing.
Among more modern /iteratt is Mr. Matthew Arnold ;
and many others who handle the “bending reed” as well
as the pen most masterfully.

We will conclude this chapter with the soft cadence of
the final stanza of J. D., the “Laureate of the Angling

Craft” :—

“ And now we are arlued at the last,
In wished harbour where we mean to rest :
And make an end of this our journey past.
Here in the quiet roade I think it best
We strike our sails and stedfast Anchor cast,
For now the Sunne low setteth in the West.”

CHAPTER] VILE

THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING
—NEWSPAPERS—REVIEWS—MAGAZINES — BOOKS ON
SEA FISHING, ICHTHYOLOGY, AND PISCICULTURE—
THE LITERARY “OUTCOME” OF THE FISHERIES
EXHIBITION.

PERHAPS the subject taken in hand in this little volume
might have been considered fairly concluded in the last
chapter, as the survey in the preceding papers has covered,
though necessarily in a circumscribed and imperfect
manner, the whole field of Fishing Literature from the
earliest times to the present. Still it may not be out of
place to add a few words in reference to the current
literature of fishing ; and a list of some of the chief works
which deal with subjects more or less allied to that
immediately in hand.

A weekly newspaper, specially devoted to Fish and
Fishing is Zhe Fishing Gazette, most ably edited by
Mr. R. B. Marston, who is well known as a learned and
skilful angler, and for the interest he takes in pisciculture,
especially in reference to “coarse” fish. The Angler’s
Fournal is another, edited by Captain Alfred, of Moorgate
Street. The /7e/d has, from its first starting, devoted
much space to angling, of which department Mr. Francis
Francis has been editor for many years. A large portion
of his Angling, and kindred works, has first appeared in
its pages. Land and Water, to which the late Mr. Frank

I @

48 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Buckland was a voluminous contributor, follows in the
same line; and Mr. Henry Ffennell is now its angling
editor. It has recently appeared in a new and im-
proved form, which has been much appreciated. Ashore
or Afloat, a recently launched weekly, and admirably done,
makes fish and fishing a special feature. The success
in this department has been secured by the appointment
of Mr. J. T. Carrington, the naturalist of the Aquarium,
as the editor of ‘Sea Fishing, and Mr. J. P. Wheeldon of
‘Freshwater Fishing. The /2sk Trades Gazette, a new
weekly journal, rather inclined to take a one-sided view
of the fish trade, always contains a good supply of in-
teresting matter in connection with sea fishing. Of a very
similar character is the American paper called the Sea
World and Packer's Fournal, published at Baltimore. The
American Angler (New York) is a Transatlantic paper of
interest to anglers. But the best of the class is Forest
and Stream (New York), of which Messrs. Sampson Low,
Marston & Co. are the representatives in London. The
field is another excellent American paper of the same
type. It is published at Chicago. Among journals here
which deal with miscellaneous sports and _ pastimes,
and include articles on angling, may be mentioned the
Sporting Life, the Sportsman, Lell’s Life, and the
Sporting and Dramatic News, and the Irish Sort.
Other weekly papers, such as the Graphic, constantly
have articles on angling in their pages. Indeed such
is the popularity of angling at the present time, that
even the London daily papers frequently publish articles
on the subject. Among provincial newspapers the Vorwich
Argus, a high-class Conservative journal, is conspicuous for
the space it gives to contributions on sea and river fishing.
It is from the office of this paper that an admirable little

MAGAZINES—GUIDE-BOOKS. 149

Guide to the Broads and Rivers of Norfolk is issued ; and
also the annual Last Anghan Handbook, in which articles
on fish and fishing have for the last quarter of a century
found a place. A selection of these, bound in one volume,
was exhibited by Mr. P. Soman, the proprietor of the
Argus, at the Fisheries Exhibition.

)

The “Magazines” of the period by no means neglect
angling. Blackwood did no little to establish its reputation
years ago by its angling articles from the pens of Professor
Wilson, and other eminent literary anglers. Fraser, also,
has long made angling articles a feature in its pages; and
even the more sober “ Quarterlies” minister to the prevail-
ing taste. The “ Monthlies” of many kinds also follow suit,
such as the Cornhill, Temple Bar, &c.; while the evergreen
Baily, and the promising young Sgzzre (the latter under
the able conductorship of Mr. Morgan Evans), minister
recularly and pleasantly to piscatorial wants. The Sporting
Mirror angles for readers. Scribner's Monthly, now Zhe
Century (New York), sends us an abundant supply of
admirable angling articles from the other side of the
‘“herring-pond.”

What may be termed “Guide-Books” have their place,
though a humble one, in angling literature ; and very useful
publications they are. Among them may be mentioned
the Angler's Diary, issued annually from the Fzeld Office,
which gives in alphabetical order a list of all the fishing
waters in the United Kingdom, with nearest railway
stations, and a variety of information in reference to “close”
seasons, licences, &c. Mr. Greville Fennell’s The Rail and
the Rod has already been mentioned in Chapter VI. as has
also Mr. Wheeldon’s Angling Resorts near London. Both
books contain most useful “guidal” information, as well as
being worthy of being ranked as books on angling from a

10 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

literary point of view. The same remark applies to Mr.
Little’s Azgler’s Complete Guide and Companion. For
Scotch anglers, or others going north, Mr. Watson Lyall’s
Sportsman's and Tourists Guide, which is published
monthly during the spring and summer, is a valuable
reference book, and contains much useful information as
to letting price of Scotch fishings, &c. Of a somewhat
similar character, but in “book” form, is The Highland
Sportsman, published annually by Mr. Hall at 43, Old
Bond Street. All who wish to acquaint themselves with
Scotland in its sporting aspect should have this volume.
Just before going to press with these notes, another Scotch
sporting guide has been announced as shortly to appear,
under the title of Ross's Sportsman's Friend (68, West
Regent Street, Glasgow).

Angling Societies are also contributing to angling litera-
ture by the publication in volumes of the Papers read at
their meetings. The two series of Angler's Evenings
(Heywood and Son, Manchester), being Papers read before
the Manchester Angling Association, are admirable ex-
amples of such publications. Very recently that young but
flourishing angling association, Ze Gresham, has issued a
pleasant little volume containing some of the Papers read
at its meetings.

Our colonies and the United States are fast forming a
piscatory literature of their own. In the latter the pastime
of fishing is becoming more and more popular every
year. Among them may be mentioned the American
Angler's Guide, the first edition of which was published at
New York in 1845, and the last in 1876. It covers all
kinds of fishing in the United States, and contains much
that may be read with profit by anglers here. Bethune’s
valuable edition of the Complete Angler has been referred

BOOKS ON SEA-FISHING. 161

to in Chapter IV. Other American angling books are
Henshall’s Black Bass Fishing ; Hallock’s Fishing Tourvst,
and his American Sportsman's Gazeteer; and Frank
Forester’s Fishing with Hook and Line. The last files of
papers from America announce the appearance of /7sh:
their Habits and Haunts, and the Methods of Catching
them, by the late Lorenzo Pronty.

For the purpose of reference, a list of some chief works
on SEA-FISHING, ICHTHYOLOGY, and PISCICULTURE are
here added.

Under those on SEA-FISHING to be specially men-
tioned is Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth’s Deep-sea Fishing
and Fishing Boats (Stanford, 1874), from which may be
fully learned all that an ordinary reader would wish to
know about the fishing industry round our coasts. Ber-
tram’s Harvest of the Sea (Murray, 1865), Zhe Great
Fisheries of the World described (Nelson, 1878), Caux’s The
Herring and the Herring Fishery (Hamilton, Adam, and
Co., 1881), and The Fisheries of the World, now in course
of publication by Messrs. Cassell and Co.—are all full of
information on the subject. <A little pamphlet, entitled
Sea Fisheries; or, Christmas among the Fishermen of the
North Sea, which has been on sale at the Fisheries
Exhibition, may be read with interest. Many books
deal mainly with sea fishing as a “sport’”—for instance
(without giving them in chronological order), Wil-
cock’s Sea Fisherman (Longman and Co.), L. Young’s
Sea Fishing as a Sport (1872), “ Wildfowler’s” Szoot-
mg and Fishing Trips (Longman & Co.), Lord’s Sea Fish,
and how to catch them (Bradbury and Evans, 1862),
Brookes’s Art of Angling, Rock and Sea Fishing, dating
as far back as 1740. There is valuable information, also
of a general kind, in Hearder’s Degeneration of our Sea

12 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

Fisheries (Plymouth, 1870), and in the little Trade Cata-
logues of Hearder and Son, and of C. & R. Brooks, both
tackle makers at Plymouth, who exhibited and won dis-
tinction at the Fisheries Exhibition. But as valuable a
volume as any connected with our sea fisheries is the
Selection of Prize Essays, recently published by the Com-
mittee of the Edinburgh Fisheries Exhibition of last year.
Almost every subject connected with the fishing industry
is therein most fully treated on. The volume is entitled,
Essays on Fish and Fisheries, and is published by Black-
wood and Sons, Edinburgh.

Mr. Andrew Youneg’s Natural History and Habits of
the Salmon (Longman and Co., 1874), The Autobiography
of Salmo Salar, Esq. already mentioned in Chapter VL,
and Mr. Archibald Young’s Salmon Fisheries (attached to
Mr. Holdsworth’s book on sea fishing), are among the works
to be referred to in connection with the fish that hovers
between salt and fresh water, and has both a sporting
and commercial importance. Mr. T. Brady’s Reports, and
other publications in reference to Irish fisheries, are also
very valuable. Olsen’s pictorial Atlas of the North Sea, &c.
(O. T. Olsen, Grimsby), should be possessed by all who
wish to study our sea fisheries. The last work we will
mention is The British Fisheries Directory, recently pub-
lished by Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. It may truly
be called a child of the Fisheries Exhibition, and it is to
be hoped that it will be established as an annual. Of its
usefulness to both amateur and professional fishermen there
can be no doubt, as it is a book of statistics and general
information in connection with every department of the
fishing industry of the United Kingdom. The idea was an
excellent one, and it has been excellently carried out. For

a variety of other works, bearing more or less -directly on

ICHITVOLOGY. 153

sea fishing, reference may be made to that portion of the

Bibliotheca Piscatoria devoted to “ Fisheries” publications.
Legal works of value connected with our fisheries, which
will be found most useful, are Oke’s Handbook of Game

and Fishery Laws (Butterworth’s, 1878), edited by J. W.
W. Bund; Mr. Bund’s own book on The Law relating to
the Salmon Fisheries, &c.; Mr. Baker’s Laws relating to
Salmon Fisheries, &c. (though the last edition was in
1868), and Mr. Archibald Young’s books above-mentioned.
For an exhaustive list of Acts of Parliament relating to
our fisheries, from the time of Edward I. (1270), down to
the present, and Parliamentary Papers, reference can be
made to the Bibliotheca Piscatoria, in which the enumera-
tion of both together fill up no less than fifty pages.

- The mention of works on ICHTHYOLOGY at once sug-
gests the names of the great French naturalists Buffon and
Cuvier. The Animal Kingdom of the latter, and Natural
History of the former, must ever remain standard works
of their kind, notwithstanding fresh discoveries in zoology.
Among our own country the name of Yarrell stands out
conspicuously, his History of British Fishes being a master
work (Van Voorst), and his Growth of the Salmon in Fresh
Water another. Mr. Van Voorst also publishes a most
interesting book, though not in the class we are now
mentioning, entitled Heraldry of Fish, by Thomas Moule.
Couch’s History of the Fishes of the British Isles (Bell &
Co.) is too well known to need more than mention here.
His Treatise on the Pilchard is also well worth study, both
as a work on ichthyology, and as bearing on the pilchard
fisheries of Cornwall. Another standard work is the
Introduction to the Study of Fishes, by Dr. C. L. B. Giinther,
of the British Museum (A. & C. Black, Edinburgh, 1880).
British Fresh Water Fishes, by the Rev. W. Houghton,

154 LITERATURE OF SEA*AND RIVER FISHING.

is published by W. Mackenzie & Co. of Ludgate Hill,
E.C., and Edinburgh and Dublin (1880), and it is diffi-
cult to imagine a work of the kind more splendidly illus-
trated, while the letterpress is all that can be desired.
The two grand volumes make a magnificent specimen of
a livre de luxe. The chapters on the “Salmonide” are
of special interest and beauty. The Fishes of Great
Britain and Treland, “including their economic uses and

d

various modes of capture, &c.,” is another of the great
books of the age and “for all time.’ Dr. Francis Day,
its author, is also well known for his work on the Fzshes
of India, and other productions. He has won the highest
distinctions in connection with the Indian Section at the
Fisheries Exhibition, and other honours. Cassell’s Matural
flistory, a grand work, which has long been in course of
publication, under the editorship of Dr. Duncan, is another
most valuable book of reference. Among less pretentious
volumes may be mentioned F. Buckland’s Azstory of British
Fishes, &c. (S.P.C.K.), and his Logbook of a Fisherman and
Zoologist ; Wood's Natural History ; Fishes, in Jardine’s
“Naturalist’s Library”; Brown’s Natural History of the Sal-
mon (1862); Pennell’s A xgler-Naturalist; The Autobiography
of Salmo Salar, Esquire, already referred to; Badham’s
Prose Halentics; the various works by H. P. Gosse;
Rennie’s Alphabet of Scientific Angling, though published
as long ago as 1836, and consequently somewhat anti-
quated in its curious ichthyological gossip; and Reports
on the Natural History of Salmonoids (Blackwood, 1867).
The various writings of Professors Darwin, Tyndall, Owen,
and Huxley, contain a variety of ichthyological informa-
tion, and the monograph on the Crayfish, by the last
named, is a veritable marvel of exhaustive treatment. The
last work we shall mention here, but by no means “the

PISCICULTURE. 155

least” in the library of ichthyology, is Scribner & Sons’
(New York) Game Fishes of the United States, containing
a series of most magnificent paintings of fishes and scenery,
with the text by Professor Browne Goode, of the United
States Museum. This is another of the Zvres de luxe, but
unfortunately beyond the means of slender purses. A
large number of the books on angling already referred to
in Chapters IV., V., and VI, contain ichthyological matter
of more or less interest.

Works on PISCICULTURE are numerous, and many date
back to the Middle Ages, and even “classic” times. Some
have already been referred to in connection with what we
have called the “composite” books on angling; and to
them may be added the Treatises of Boccius, published by
Van Voorst in 1841 and 1848; and several other transla-
tions of foreign authors. Our own older writers dilated a
good deal on fish-ponds, a subject to which before long
greater attention will probably be given in this country.
Roger North published his Discourse on Fish and Fish-ponds
in 1713, and it may still be studied with profit, a remark which
applies to W. Marshall’s work on Management of Landed
Estates (Longman & Co., 1806), in which the 9th section
treats on “Improvement of Waters.” Other comparatively
old works, such as Lebault’s J/azson Rustique (mentioned
by I. Walton in “Fifth Day”), translated into English
in 1600; Ellis’s Modern Husbandman (1750) ; Mordant’s
Complete Steward (1761), in dictionary form ; Mortimer’s
Whole Art of Husbandry (1707); Jacob’s Country Gentle-
man’s Vade-mecum (1717); and Hale’s Complete Body of
Husbandry (1758), all contain “ Fish-pondian” information,
a great deal of which is applicable to “ fish-farming ” at the
present time. Among works on angling, several contain
piscicultural disquisitions, and especially Bowlker’s Art of
Angling, referred to in Chapter V. Among more recent

156 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

works which may be consulted are F. Buckland’s Fish and
Fish Hatching (Tinsley Brothers, 1863); Capel’s Trout
Culture (Hardwicke & Bogue, 1877); Sir Samuel Wilson’s
Trout at the Antipodes (Stanford, 1879); .Ashworth’s
remarks on the artificial propagation of salmon at Stor-
montfield (1875), and Report of a Commitice on the experi-
ments there (1875), and Brown’s Natural History of the
Salmon, also in connection with the same establishment
(Murray, Glasgow, 1862); Francis Francis’s /%sh Culture
(Routledge, 1865), and his Practical Management of Fish-
erties (Field office, 1883); Hoare’s Treatise on Fish-ponds
(Wyman and Sons, 1870); and Humphrey’s River Gardens
(Sampson Low & Co.,. 1857). The United States of
America has been prolific in piscicultural publications.
Seth Green published his Zvout Culture in 1870, and
L. Stone his Domesticated Trout in 1873—a valuable
work; and Norris his American Fish Culture in 1868
(Sampson Low & Co.). The Reports of the United
States Commission of Fish and Fisheries date from 1871,
and are all most instructive; as are The Transactions of
the American Fish Cultural Association (established in
1871), to which Professor G. Brown Goode is a prominent
contributor; and from Canada we had last year the
interesting and valuable Report of S. Wilmot, Esq. on
Fish Breeding Operations, &c. in the Dominion. The
annual Fisheries Statements published by the Canadian
Government are well got up and worth consulting.

Our concluding note will be in reference to the published
literary products of the Fisheries Exhibition itself. Of
these the HANDBOOKS are naturally the chief; and for
convenience of reference we give the Series entire :—

The Fishery Laws. By Frederick Pollock, Barrister-at-Law, M.A.

(Oxon.), Hon. LL.D. Edin. ; Corpus Christi Professor of
Jurisprudence in the University of Oxford.

HANDBOOKS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS. 157

Zoology and Food Fishes. By George B. Howes, Demonstrator
of Biology, Normal School of Science, and Royal School of
Mines, South Kensington.

British Marine and Freshwater Fishes. (Mllustrated.) By W.
Saville Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Author of Official Guide-books
to the Brighton, Manchester, and Westminster Aquaria.

Apparatus for Fishing. By E. W. H. Holdsworth, F.L.S., F.Z.S.,
Special Commissioner for Juries, International Fisheries
Exhibition; Author of ‘‘ Deep Sea Fisheries and Fishing
Boats,” “ British Industries—Sea Fisheries,” &c.

The British Fish Trade. By His Excellency Spencer Walpole,
Lieut.-Governor of the Isle of Man.

The Unappreciated Fisher Folk. By James G. Bertram, Author
of ‘“‘ The Harvest of the Sea.”

The Salmon Fisheries. (Mlustrated.) By C. E. Fryer, Assistant
Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Home Office.

Sea Monsters Unmasked. (Ilustrated.) By Henry Lee, F.L.S.

The Angling Clubs and Preservation Societies of London and the
Provinces. By J. P. Wheeldon, late Angling Editor of
pabellisabiic.2

Indian Fish and Fishing. (Illustrated.) By Francis Day, F.L.S.,
Commissioner for India to International Fisheries Exhi-
bition.

A Popular History of Fisheries and Fishermen of all Countries,
from the Earliest Times. By W. M. Adams, B.A., formerly
Fellow of New College, Oxford.

Fish Culture, (Ulustrated.) By Francis Day, F.L.S., Commis-
sioner for India to International Fisheries Exhibition.

Fish as Diet. By W. Stephen Mitchell, M.A. (Cantab.)

Angling in Great Britain, By William Senior (“ Red Spinner”).

Edible Crustacea. By W. Saville Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Author of
Official Guide-books to the Brighton, Manchester, and West-
minster Aquaria.

The Literature of Sea and River Fishing. By John J. Manley, M.A.
(Oxon.), Author of “ Notes on Fish and Fishing,” &c., &c.

Sea Fables Disclosed. By Henry Lee, F.L.S.

Fishes of Fancy: their place in Fable, Fatry Tale, Myth, and
Poetry. By Phil Robinson.

158 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

The Outcome of the Exhibition. By A. J. R. Trendell, of the
Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Literary Superintendent for
the Fisheries Exhibition.

The series of PAPERS read at the CONFERENCES are as
follows :—

Inaugural Meeting: Address. By Professor Huxley, P.R.S.
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (President of the Commission)
in the Chair.

Notes on the Sea Fisheries and Fishing Population of the United
Kingdom. By H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, K.G.

The Fishery Industries of the United States. By Professor Brown
Goode, M.A.

Oyster Culture and Oyster Fisheries in the Netherlands. By Pro-
fessor Hubrecht.

Principles of Fishery Legislation. By Right Hon. G. Shaw-
iefeyre, M.P:

On the Culture of Salmonide and the Acclimatisation of Fish.
By Sir James Ramsay Gibson Maitland, Bart.

Fish Diseases. By Professor Huxley, P.R.S.

The Economic Condition of Fishermen. By Professor Leone Levi.

The Fisheries of Canada. By L. Z. Joncas.

Preservation of Fish Life in Rivers by the Exclusion of Town
Sewage. By the Hon. W. F. B. Massey Mainwaring.

Molluscs, Mussels, Whelks, &c¢., used for Food or Bait. By
Charles Harding.

Coarse Fish Culture. By R. B. Marston.

On the Food of Fishes. By Dr. F. Day.

The Herring Fisheries of Scotland. By R. W. Duff, M.P.

Line Fishing. By C. M. Mundahl.

Fish Transport and Fish Markets. By His Excellency Spencer
Walpole.

Forest Protection and Tree Culture on Water Frontages. By D.
Howitz, Esq.

Seal Fisheries. By Captain Temple.

Fish as Food. By Sir Henry Thompson.

Storm Warnings. By R. H. Scott.

CONFERENCE PAPERS. 159

On the Destruction of Fish and other Aquatic Animals by Internal
Parasttes. By Professor Cobbold, F.R.S., F.L.S.

Scientific Results of the Exhibition. By Professor E. Ray Lan-
kester.

A National Fishery Society for Great Britain. By C. E. Fryer.

Crustaceans. By T. Cornish.

Salmon and Salmon Fisheries. By David Milne Home, F.R.S.E.

Pilchard and Mackerel Fisheries. By T. Cornish.

_ Lresh- Water Fishing (other than Salmon). By J. P. Wheeldon.

Artificial Culture of Lobsters. By W. Saville Kent.

The Basis for Legislation on Fishery Questions. By Lieut.-Col.
F. G. Sola.

Trawling. By Alfred Ansell.

On Facilities for the Improved Capture and Economic Transmission
of Sea Fisheries, and how these Matters affect Irish Fisheries.
By R. F. Walsh, of Kinsale.

The Fisheries of Ireland. By J. C. Bloomfield.

The Fisheries of Other Countries. By Commissioners for Sweden,
Norway, Spain, &c., who took part in the Conference.

The Pollution of Rivers, By Mr. V. B. Barrington Kennett, M.A.

The Fisheries of Japan. By Narinori Okoshi.

The West African Fisheries, with particular reference to the Gold
Coast Colony. By Captain Moloney, C.M.G.

Fish Preservation and Refrigeration. By Mr. J. K. Kilbourn.

Practical Fishermen's Congress (presided over by Mr. Edward
Birkbeck, M.P.), containing: (2) Destruction of Immature
Fish. (0) Harbour Accommodation. (c) Better Means for
Prevention of Loss of Life at Sea. (¢) Railway Rates.

The Fisheries of Newfoundland, By Sir Ambrose Shea, K.C.M.G.

The above Handbooks and Papers treat of almost every
subject which can be included under the title of “ Fish and
Fishing” ; and cover much of the ground occupied in
many of the books passed in review in the foregoing pages.
In addition to them there will be published the Reforts
of the Furors,; and a selection of the Prize Essays and
others, on a variety of piscatory subjects.

160 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING.

The Catalogue, the fourth edition of which occupies close
on five hundred closely-printed pages, and produced under
the editorship of Mr. A. J. R. Trendell, may in a certain
sense be considered as a valuable contribution to the litera-
ture of Sea and River Fishing, and almost a “ Bibliotheca
Piscatoria” in itself.

The “Handbooks” and “Papers” will be sent to every
library in the civilised world, as well as find a place in
those of our own country ; and, owing to their large general
circulation, are likely to stimulate still further interest in
both sea and river fishing and their surroundings. If only
for this literary “outcome,” the great International Fish-

eries Exhibition will not have been held in vain.

Note.—The “ Handbooks,” at One Shilling each, and
“ Papers,” at Sixpence each, are published by Messrs. Clowes

and Sons, 13, Charing Cross, S.W.,; and they can also be
had (fully indexed) in bound volumes.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREBT AND CHARING CROSS.

OFFICIAL PU BLICATIONS

OF THE

INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION,

PUBLISHED

WM. CLOWES & SONS, an ‘ Charing Cross, 8.W

(And Sold at their Stalls near each Entrance to the Exhibition.)

OFFICIAL GUIDE BOOKS, &e.

LARGE PLAN and TOUR of the BUILDINGS, 1d.;
post-free 13d.

GUIDE to the EXHIBITION, 3d.; post-free 4d.
PROGRAMME of MUSIC, &c., 2d.; post-free 3d.

OFFICIAL CATALOGUE, Second Edition, 1s.; post-
free ls. 4d.

CHEAP RECIPES for FISH COOKERY. Prepared
by Mrs. CHARLES CLARKE. 34d.; post-free 4d.

THE FISHERIES PORTFOLIO:

CONTAINING
Ten Original Etchings of Scenes on the British Coast.
TITLE, | ARTIST.

1.—Bait Gatherers . ¢ « »« » « R. W. Macseru, A.R.A.
2.—Running Ashore »« » »« «© e« « CoLin HUNTER.

8.—A Fisher Girl . 2. . « « _« j. D. Watson.
4.—Fishing Boats off Hastings . . Davip Law.

6:—Going for Bait .< . 9. <i « OTTo LEYDE, R.S.A.
6.—Boat Building on the Yare . . C.J. Warts.
7.—Preparing for Sea—Hastings . C. P. SLOcoMBE.
8.—Ramsgate Harbour . .. « « J. P. HESELTINE.
9.—Fisherman’s Haven . . «© «© e J. MacWuirTER, A.R.A.
10.—Stranded—Rye. . . ». » + + WILFRID W. BALL

Price 15s. the complete set.

Lonpon : WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Liuirep,
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13 CHARING CROSS.

a OF THE Caine

Held in con SMITHSONIAN INSTIT a

= Mil HAMM

Demy 8vt.,__-____ 8 00723 6722 xpence each.
INAUGURAL. MEETING: ADDRESS. By Professor Hux ry, P.R.S,

H.R.H. the Prince cf Wauxs (President of the Commission) in the Chair. ¢

WOTES ON THE SEA FISHERIES AND FISHING POPULATION
OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. By H.R.H THE Duxe or Epinsurecu, K.G. ts.

THE FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. By Pro-

fessor Brown Goong, M.A.

OYSTER CT.TURE AND OYSTER FISHERIES IN THE NETHER-
LANDS. By Professor HUBRECHT.

PRINCIPLES OF FISHERY LEGISLATION. By Right Hon. G. SHaw-
LeFevre, M.P.

ON THE CULTURE OF SALMONIDAE AND THE ACCLIMA-
TISATION OF FISH. By Sir James Ramsay Gipson Mairtvanp, Bart.

FISH DISEASES. By Professor Huxuey, P.R.S.
THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF FISHERMEN, By Professor LEONE

Levi.
THE FISHERIES OF CANADA. By L. Z. Joncas.
PRESERVATION OF FISH LIFE IN RIVERS BY THE EXCLU-
SION OF TOWN SEWAGE. By the Hon. W. F. B. Massey MaInwaRING.
MOLLUSCS, MUSSELS, WHELKS, &c., USED FOR FOOD OR BAIT.

By CHARLES HARDING.
COARSE FISH CULTURE. By R. B. Marston.
ON THE FOOD OF FISHES. By Dr. F. Day.
THE HERRING FISHERIES OF SCOTLAND. ByR. W. rae M.P.
LINE FISHING. By C. M. MuNDAHL,
FISH TRANSPORT AND FISH MARKETS. By His Excellency SPENCER

WALPOLE.

FOREST PROTECTION AND TREE CULTURE ON WATER
FRONTAGES. By D. Howr7z, Esq-

SEAL FISHERIES. By Captain TEMPLE.

FISH AS FOOD. By Sir HENRY THOMPSON.

STORM WARNINGS. By R. H. Scorr.

ON THE DESTRUCTION OF FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC
ANIMALS BY INTERNAL PARASITES. By Professor Cosso.p, F.R.S., F.L.S.

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE EXHIBITION, By Professor E. Ray

LANKESTER.

A aOR FISHERY SOCIETY FOR GREAT BRITAIN. By
. E. FRYER.

CRUSTACEANS. By T. CornisuH.

TRAWLING. By ALFRED ANSELL.

bt Bee ae LEGISLATION ON FISHERY QUESTIONS, By
ieut.-Co OLA

MACKEREL AND PILCHARD FISHERIES. By T. Cornisu.

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF LOBSTERS. By W. SaviL_r KENT.

FRESHWATER FISHING (other than Salmon). By J. P. WHEELDON.

SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES. By Davip MILNE Homg, F.R.S.E.

THE FISHERIES OF IRELAND. By J. C. BLoomFigELp.

ON IMPROVED FACILITIES FOR THE CAPTURE, ECONOMIC

TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SEA FISHES, AND HOW
MATTERS AFFECT IRISH FISHERIES. By R. F. Watsu, of Kinsale. 2 ase

NOTES ON THE FISH SUPPLY OF NORWAY. By FREDRIK M.

Wa tem, Executive Commissioner for Norway to the International Fisheries Exhibition, London. -

IN THE PRESS.
THE FISHERIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES.

Sweden, Spain, &c., who took part in the Conference.

By Commissioners for

LONDON: WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Limirtep,
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13, CHARING CROSS.

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