Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—FIRST " ENGLISH TREATISE ON FISHING " 55The earliest description of fishing in the EngHsh languagemeets us in The Colloquy of Aelfric, a.d. 995, which Skeat firstbrought to notice and first " Englished " in The Oldest EnglishTreatise on Fishing.'^ This takes the form of a short dialogueintroduced into the Colloquy written by Aelfric, Archbishop ofCanterbury, for the purpose of teaching his pupils Latin, andtherefore written in Anglo-Saxon with a Latin translationbeneath. "It is arranged as a conversation between themaster and his pupil ;the latter in turns figuring as huntsman^fisherman, falconer."The length of the Colloquy, even of the fishing portion,prevents inclusion here,but the pupil's objection to fishing inthe sea, " because rowing is troublesome to me," and to goinga-whaling, " because I had rather catch a fish I can kill thanone that can, with one stroke, kill both, me and my comrades,"strikes me as well taken and pertinent.A poem by Piers of Fulham, written about 1420 (theoriginal MS. of which can be seen at Trinity CoUege, Cambridge)claims next our notice. The author, judging from Hartshorne'srendering, fully justifies the description of him as a somewhatHe seems to have anticipated. De Quincey'spessimistic angler." fishing is an unceasing expectation and a perpetual disappointment."He fully appreciated its difiiculties and disappointments,but clearly possessed some sportsmanlikeinstincts, as the following, among other, verses show 2 :" And ete the olde fishe, and leve the yonge.Though they moore towgh be uppon the tonge."A Latin book Dialogus creaturantm optinie moralizatuswas pubHshed in 1480 ; a translation about 1520 styles itThe Dialogues of Creatures Moralysed. This very rare work,which I have found fully dealt with from an Angler's point ofview only by Dr. Turrell, furnishes the earHest known illustrationof an angler fishing with a float.Next in date, and last to be noticed here, comes the famous* The Angler's Note-Book, ist series (1880), p. 76.* Cf. Turrell, op. cii., 4. In " and with angle hookys " in Piers, Mr.Marston, op. cit.,2, sees " probably the earliest known reference to anghng inEnglish."