preserved in the Denison collection. This was published in 1883 by Mr Thomas Satchell under the title An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. But it is also possible that a still older work was the parent of both books, for it has been held that the manuscript is an independent version. However this may be, it is certain that the treatise itself has been the parent of many other works. Many of the instructions contained in it are handed down from generation to generation with little change except in diction. Especially is this the case with the list of trout-flies, a meagre twelve, which survives in many fishing books until well into the 18th century.
From the beginning of the 16th century the fisherman’s library begins to grow apace, as, though books solely devoted to fishing are not yet frequent, works on husbandry and country pursuits almost all contain something on the subject. In Italy the fisherman and his occupation apparently were considered poetically; the word pescatore or its cognates are common on Italian 16th and 17th century title-pages, though in many instances the fulfilment of the implied promise is not adequate, from an angler’s point of view. From the pages of Bibliotheca Piscatoria a fairly long list of Italian writers could be gleaned. Among them may be mentioned Sannazaro (Piscatoria, &c., Rome, 1526) and Andrea Calmo (Rime pescatorie, Venice, 1557). A century later was Parthenius, who published a volume of Halieutica at Naples. This writer has an amusing reference to the art of “tickling” trout as practised in Britain. In Germany, as has been shown, the original little Flemish treatise had a wide vogue in the 16th century, and fishing played a part in a good many books on husbandry such as that of Conrad Heresbach (1570). Fish and fish-ponds formed the main topic of a Latin work by Dubravius (1552), while Gesner in the middle of the 16th and Aldrovandi at the beginning of the 17th centuries wrote at length on the natural history of fishes. In France the subject is less well represented, but Les Pescheries of Chris. de Gamon (Lyons, 1599) and Le Plaisir des champs of Cl. Gauchet (Paris, 1604) deserve to be noted. Les Ruses innocentes by François Fortin, first published at Paris in 1600, and several times in later editions, is characterized by Messrs Westwood and Satchell as “on the whole the most interesting contribution made by France to the literature of angling.” England during the most part of the 16th century was evidently well enough served by the original treatise out of The Book of St Albans. It was republished twice by Wynkyn de Worde, six or seven times by Copland, and some five times by other printers. It was also practically republished in A Booke of Fishing by L. M. (1590). L. M. (Leonard Mascall) ranks as an angling author, but he did little more than borrow and edit the treatise. The same may be said of another version of The Book of St Albans “now newly collected by W. G. Faulkener” and issued in 1596.
Modern Literature.—In 1600 appeared John Taverner’s Certaine Experiments concerning Fish and Fruite, and after this the period of angling literature proper begins. The Secrets of Angling (1613), by J(ohn) D(ennys), Esq., is one of the most important volumes in the angler’s library, both on account of the excellence of the verse in which it is written and also on account of its practical value. Gervase Markham, “the first journalist,” as he has been called, published his first book of husbandry at the same date, and, as in most of his many books on the same subject, devoted a certain amount of space to fishing. But Markham gathered his materials in a rather shameless manner and his angling passages have little originality. Thomas Barker’s The Art of Angling (1st ed., 1651) takes a more honourable position, and received warm commendation from Izaak Walton himself, who followed it in 1653 with The Compleat Angler. So much has been written about this treasured classic that it is only necessary to indicate its popularity here by saying that its editions occupy some twenty pages in Bibliotheca Piscatoria (1883), and that since that work was published at least forty new editions have to be added to the list. During Walton’s life-time the book ran through five editions, and with the fifth (1676) was incorporated Charles Cotton’s second part, the “instructions how to angle for a trout or grayling, in a clear stream.” In some cases too there was added a third book, the fourth edition of The Experienced Angler, by Robert Venables (1st ed., 1662). The three books together bore the title of The Universal Angler. Venables’s portion was dropped later, but it is worth reading, and contained sound instruction though it has not the literary merit of Walton and Cotton.
A few other notable books of the century call for enumeration, The Gentleman’s Recreation by Nicholas Cox (1674), Gilbert’s The Angler’s Delight (1676), Chetham’s Vade-Mecum (1681), The Complete Troller by Robert Nobbes (1682), R. Franck’s Northern Memoirs (1694), and The True Art of Angling by J. S. (1696). Of these Chetham, Nobbes, Franck and J. S. have the merit of considerable originality. Franck has gained some notoriety by his round abuse of Walton. In the 18th century among others we find The Secrets of Angling by C. G. (1705), Robert Hewlett’s The Angler’s Sure Guide (1706), The Whole Art of Fishing (1714), The Compleat Fisherman by James Saunders (1724), The Art of Angling by R. Brookes (1740), another book with the same title by R. and C. Bowlker (Worcester, c. 1750), The Complete Sportsman by Thomas Fairfax (c. 1760), The Angler’s Museum by T. Shirley (1784), and A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling by Thomas Best (1787). Of these only Saunders’s, Bowlker’s and Best’s books are of much importance, the rest being for the most part “borrowed.” One volume of verse in the 18th century calls for notice, Moses Browne’s Piscatory Eclogues (1729). Among greater names we get angling passages in Pope, Gay and Thomson; the two last were evidently brothers of the angle.
With the 19th century angling literature becomes too big a subject to be treated in detail, and it is only possible to glance at a few of the more important books and writers. Daniel’s Rural Sports appeared in 1801; it is a treasure-house of odd facts. In 1828 Sir Humphry Davy published his famous Salmonia, which was reviewed in the Quarterly by Sir Walter Scott. At about this time too were appearing the Noctes Ambrosianae in Blackwood’s Magazine. Christopher North (Professor Wilson) often touched upon angling in them, besides contributing a good many angling articles to the magazine. In 1835 that excellent angling writer Thomas Tod Stoddart began his valuable series of books with The Art of Angling as Practised in Scotland. In 1839 he published Songs and Poems, among which are pieces of great merit. During this period, too, first appeared, year by year, the Newcastle Fishers’ Garlands, collected by Joseph Crawhall afterwards and republished in 1864. These border verses, like Stoddart’s, have often a genuine ring about them which is missing from the more polished effusions of Gay and Thomson. Alfred Ronalds’s The Fly-Fisher’s Entomology (1st ed., 1836) was a publication of great importance, for it marked the beginning of the scientific spirit among trout-fishers. It ran through many editions and is still a valuable book of reference. A step in angling history is also marked by George Pulman’s Vade-Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout (1841), for it contains the first definite instructions on fishing with a “dry fly.” Another is marked by Hewett Wheatley’s The Rod and the Line (1849), where is to be found the earliest reference to the “eyed” hook. Yet another is marked by W. C. Stewart’s The Practical Angler (1857), in which is taught the new doctrine of “up-stream” fishing for trout. This is a book of permanent value. Among the many books of this period Charles Kingsley’s Miscellanies (1859) stands out, for it contains the immortal “Chalk-Stream Studies.” The work of Francis Francis begins at about the same time, though his A Book on Angling, which is still one of the most valuable text-books, was not first published till 1867. Another well-known and excellent writer, Mr H. Cholmondeley Pennell, began in the early ’sixties; it is to him that we owe the admirable volumes on fresh-water fishing in the “Badminton Library.” Among other English writers mention must be made of Messrs William Senior, John Bickerdyke and F. M. Halford, who have all performed signal services for angling and its literature. (See further bibliography ad fin.) In America the latter half of the 19th century produced a good deal of fishing literature, much of it of a high standard. I go
