The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modernMaxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
History
The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modern
Maxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
Amusements -- Great Britain; Sports -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Great Britain
which will be ten inches deep; and when stitched in three places, will
leave four divisions, each four inches broad. The fishbasket, pannier,
or creel, as they are made very neat and light in wicker-work, should be
large enough to admit the fish to lie at full length; they are thus
better preserved, both in appearance and for use, than when bent and
crushed together; some persons carry their pannier at their back, others
under the left arm, having the side nearest them rather hollowed: in
these baskets are sometimes a partition at the top, for holding night
lines, &c.—_Daniel._
ANGLING, _p._ The art of fishing with a rod and line.
Angling came into general repute in England about the period of the
Reformation, when both the secular and regular clergy, being prohibited
by the common law from the amusement of hunting, hawking, and fowling,
directed their attention to this recreation. The invention of printing
assisted in exciting attention to this subject, and made known its
importance “to cause the helthe of your body, and specyally of your
soul,” as the first treatise quaintly concludes. Wynkin de Worde gave
the world, in 1496, a small folio republication of the celebrated Book
of St. Albans. It contained, for the first time, a curious tract,
entitled the Treatyse of Fysshinge with an Angle; embellished with a
wood cut of the angler. This treatise is imputed to Dame Juliana
Berners, or Barnes, prioress of a nunnery near St. Albans. “The angler,”
she observes, “atte the least hath his holsom walke and mery at his
ease, a swete ayre of the swete savoure of the meede flowers that makyth
him hungary; he hereth the melodyous armony of the fowles, he seeth the
yonge swannes, heerons, duckes, cotes, and many other fowles, with their
brodes, whych me seemyth better than alle the noyse of the houndys, the
blast of hornys, and the scrye of fowles, that hunters, fawkeners, and
fowlers, can make. And if angler take fysshe, surely thenne is there noo
man merier than he is in his spyryte?” The Book of St. Albans contains
“Treatises perteynynge to Hawkynge and Huntynge,” as well as “Fysshinge
with an Angle;” and several editions of it were printed in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries; as that under the title of “The Gentleman’s
Academie in 1595;” “The Jewel for Gentrie in 1674.” Mr. Haselwood, a
learned biographer, has recently favoured the public with a well
finished _fac-simile_ reprint of the work, but he disputes the claim of
the fair lady above mentioned to be the authoress of the above treatise
on angling, and only assigns her a small portion of the treatise on
hawking, the entire treatise on hunting, a list of the beasts of chase,
and another of birds and fowls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account