The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-28

the catalogue of his collection that because
this copy was imperfect he had sent it
back to the London dealer who supplied it
to him.
The charm of Izaak Walton is well de-
scribed by Charles Lamb in letter to Cole
ridge a century after the authors death.
lit breathes the very spirit of innocence,
purity and simplicity of heart, writes
Lamb. There are many choice old verses
interspersed in it; it would sweeten a mans
temper at any time to read it; it would
Christianize every discordant, angry pas
sion; pray make yourself acquainted with
it, A tribute to the delights of the Com
pleat Angler even prettier than Lambs
is the following, written by lady of the
court in a copy owned by the great chem
list. Sir Humphrey Davy:
albeit. gentle angler.
Delight not in thy trade
Yet in thy pages there doth lie
So much of quaint simplicity,
So much of mind
OF such good kind.
That none need be afraid,
Caught by thy cunning bait, this book.
To be ensnafed upon thy hook"
BIBLICAL AUTHORITY.
On the title page of the older editions
there appeared the text: Simon Peter
said, go a-fishing;' and they said, We
also will go with thee" and the title itself
ended with the statement that the volume
was mot unworthy the perusal of most
anglers" a statement which is quite as
true to-day as it was then.
After Walton one looks next in an an
Cling library for the famous book of st.
Adams, which was the earliest printed vol
ume on sports published in any language.
9TH nnlx If IN
original edition of the chapter on fishing,
printed by Wynkyn De Worde in 1896 a
little more than twenty years after Caxton
first set up his press at Westminster, re-
mains in existence, but there are several
excellent reprints, the best of which. now
very rare, is the one reprinted in 1910, of
which the Harvard collection has a we'll
preserved exemplar. Quaint as this sport
ing treatise may be, 1t is still not so inter-
esting the authoress. who, from her
unique place in the annals of English sport
has won the title of the Diana of the En-
glish." She was Juliana Barnes, or Bern
ers, prioress of Sopwell and a true lover
of the chase and the delights of the rod and
line.
Says Holinshead, the old English histor-
ian: "She was gentlewoman who endued
with excellente CITIES of body and mind
wrote certaine treatises of hawking. hunt
ing and fysheing, delighting greatly hir-
selfe in those exercises" A great believer
in the wholesome and innocent sports of
the field and country. she advocated them
offset against idleness and vicious
living. She preferred angling above all
other pastimes, and finishes her "Treatyse
have L proved in my intent that the disport
and game of angling is the very means and
cause that induceth a man into a merry
spirit, which after the doctrine of Solomon
and of physic, maketh Towering age and
long. And therefore to all you that be vir-
tuous, gentle and freeborn, / write and
make this simple treatise, following by
which ye may have the full craft of an
Cling to disport you at your last, to the
intent that your age may the more flower
and the more longer to endure" Success
with the line, says Juliana in another
place, sis spoiled by twelve manere of ym-
pedyments whyche cause man to take
moo fyshe"-namely-"1. badly made har-
ness; 2. bad bats; 3, angling at the wrong
time; 4, fish strayed away; 5, water thick;
6. water too cold; Z, wether too hot; s, if
it rain; 8, if hail or snow fall; 10, if there be
a tempest; II, if there be great wynd: IL.
if the wynd be east" Here was surely
plain and canny advice.
THE MASCALL BOOK.
A book by Leonard Mascall first pub-
lished in 1880. is. chronologically, the next
in interest of the Harvard collection. This.
too, is reprint. 1t is full of quaint and
IN
skill in the fishers craft One section of
it is devoted to discussion of traps and
snares for the capture of the aromatic pole
cat. Here is its recipe for catching cells.
eye shall make long faggots of hay wrapt
about willow boughs which we shall put in
the midst of your bottle or faggot of hay
and then sinke it in the deepe by the banke
and so let 1t lie two or three dayes and
tie wythe or rope thereunto that We may
soone plucke it up. on land or boate: and
so We shall take yeeles therein good store.
in cold weather very good
Eminent also in the early literature of
the piscatorial realm was John Dennys.
who wrote the Secrets of Angling" a
poem in three books. The first edition an
peared in 1873 and has often been called
the rarest volume of English literature.
The author has the merit of subtlety in
rhyme. elevation of thought. and equality
of interest throughout; his work manages
its subjects gracefully and charmingly. The
creakipg leathern binding opens to allow
the pages to fall back TO the following typ
ical passage:
And let your garments Russei be- or gray
or colour darke and hardest to descry
That with the Raine weather will away
And least offend the fearful Fishes eve:
For neither Skarlet nor rich cloth Of raw
Nor colors dipt in rich Assyrian dye
VIII serve so we'll to keep of wet and cold"
OF these older English writer's there is
also Gervase Markham-the patron writer
of English husbandry-who said that "a
skillful angler ought to be a general scholar
and scene in ali the liberall sciences, as a
grammarian. TO know how either to write
CT discourse of his art In true and fitting
terms, either without affectation or rude
ness And there was Barker, the brusque
old sportsman and epicure. who wrote the
Art OF Angling" and Bankers Delight
The author seems to have been peculiar