Juliana Berners

“ The last two pages of the book give us a portrait of her con­cep­tion of the perfect angler, and it is no pre­sump­tion to say that a nobler and truer picture has never been limned. Sim­plic­i­ty of dis­po­si­tion, for­bear­ance to our neigh­bours’ rights, and con­si­der­a­tion for the poor, are strongly in­cul­cated. All cov­e­tous­ness in fishing or employment of its gentle art to increase worldly gain and fill the larder is equally condemned. She holds the highest view of angling; that it is to serve a man for solace, and to cause the health of his body, but especially of his soul. ”

“ His first discovery was that, being a “Dame,” she was of noble blood. Finding also that the family name of Lord Berners was, in olden time, spelt occasionally Barnes, he soon supplied a father for our authoress, in the person of Sir James Berners. And so the game of making history went on merrily up to the time of Joseph Haslewood, who, in 1810, reprinted Wynken de Worde’s 10edition of the Book of St. Albans, and supplied a full-blown biography of the authoress, giving particulars of her birth and education, the occupations of her youthful days, and a most imposing pedigree. ”

“ The difficulty of accounting for a lady so placed writing upon such subjects, is cleverly, if not satisfactorily settled by assuming that she passed her teens at court, partaking of the amusements of the field, and writing for her own use a commonplace book on various subjects. ”

“ The casting of plummets and forming of floats succeed. The six methods of angling and the mode of playing a fish are next treated, and the latter alone shows that Dame Juliana must herself have been a proficient in the craft. No one but a thoroughly good fisher could have summed up the art of playing a fish in the words—“kepe hym euer vnder the rodde, and euermore holde hym streyghte : soo that your lyne may susteyne and beere his lepys and his plungys wyth the helpe of your croppe & of your honde.” ”

“ Prologue to the Book of Coat Armour. “Here in this book following is determined the lineage of Coat Armours: and how gentlemen shall be known from ungentle men, and how bondage began first in angel and after succeeded in man kind, as it is here showed in process, both in the childer of Adam and also of Noe, and how Noe divided the world in three parts to his three sons. Also there be showed the nine colours in Arms figured by the nine orders of Angels, and it is showed by the foresaid colours which be worthy and which be royal ”

“ Nor should a man ever carry his amusement to excess, and catch too much at one time; this is to destroy his future pleasure and to interfere with that of his neighbours. A good sportsman too, she adds, will busy himself in nourishing the game and destroying all vermin. So will what Walton calls “the civil, well-governed angler” escape the vices which spring from idleness, and enjoy the full delights of an elevating and noble recreation. “And all those that done after this rule shall haue the blessynge of god & saynt Petyr, whyche he theym graunte that wyth his precyous blood vs boughte.” ”

“ Albans obtain his types? This is a puzzling question in the present state of palæotypography. Mr. Bradshaw of Cambridge has, by unwearied study of early printed books, thrown great light upon the connection and genealogy of numerous founts used by fifteenth-century printers, and systematic attention to the minute peculiarities of each printer is doubtless the only way in which those old books can be forced to yield up their secrets; but the task is immense, and beyond the powers of any one man to complete. ”

“ This portion of her book is regarded by the authoress as most necessary to be known and proficiency in carrying out her rules “is all the effecte of the crafte.” She adds amusingly, “for ye can not brynge an hoke in to a fyssh mouth wythout a bayte.” A few of the quaint receipts of her age succeed; how to keep live baits, to make pastes and the like, ending with a rule which is often given to flyfishers for trout at the present day: “Whan ye haue take a grete fysshe : vndo the mawe, & what ye fynde therin make that your bayte : for it is beste.” ”

“ To promote 26“mewing” give the flesh of a kid, a young swan, and especially rats flesh; stewed adders are also strongly recommended, or chickens which have been fed upon wheat soaked in broth of vipers.
Gout seems a common disease in various parts of the Hawk’s body, which may be known by swelling and “ungladness;” also rheum and fever and blains and agrum, which last is cured by a red-hot silver needle thrust into the nostrils. Botches in the jaw should be “kutte with a knyfe.” ”

“ For he maye not lese at the moost but a lyne or an hoke : of whyche he maye haue store plentee of his owne makynge / as this sym | ple treatyse shall teche hym. Soo thenne his losse is not greuo | us. and other greyffes maye he not haue / sauynge but yf ony fisshe breke away after that he is take on the hoke / or elles that he catche nought : whyche ben not greuous. For yf he faylle of one he maye not faylle of a nother / yf he dooth as this treatyse techyth : but yf there be nonght in the water. And yet atte the leest he hath his holsom walke and mery at his ease. ”

“ This, indeed, coupled with the diminution of game consequent on the progress of civilisation and the increase of the population, led to the gradual decadence of the sport, and nearly to its extinction in the eighteenth century, although, in very rare cases, falconry is even now practised. ”

“ HE scholarly angler is here pre­sent­ed with an exact fac­sim­i­le of the first En­glish trea­tise on fish­ing. The book is of extreme interest for several reasons, not the least curious being that it has served as a literary quarry to so many suc­ceed­ing writers on fishing, who have not dis­dained to adapt the authoress’s sent­i­ments to their own use, and even to borrow them word for word without ac­knowl­edg­ment. Walton himself was evidently familiar with it, and has clearly taken his “jury of flies” from its “xij flyes wyth whyche ye shall angle to ye trought & grayl­lyng;” ”

“ There is not one of them that would not repay much deeper study, and the reader will, doubtless, sympathise with the writer in the wish that more could be discovered concerning the schoolmaster-printer. ”

“ Such men as Donne, Wotton, and Herbert, Paley, Bell, and Davy, together with many another excellent and simple dis­po­sition, have caught en­thus­iasm from her lofty sen­ti­ments, and found that not their bodily health only, but also their morals, were improved by angling. ”

“ In this treatise on Hunting we have the express statement at the end of the twenty-fourth page—“Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes.” This might certainly apply to the transcription only, but, when taken with Wynken de Worde’s version, the probability is, that the lady compiled as well as wrote it. In the reprint by Wynken de Worde, only ten years later than the original, he varies the colophon thus:—“¶ Explicit dame Julyans Bernes doctryne in her boke of huntynge,” the whole reprint ending “Enprynted at westmestre by Wynkyn the Worde the yere of thyncarnacōn of our lorde. M . CCCC . lxxxxvj.” ”

“ Over theis crossis we heue an odyr cros the wiche I sawe late in tharmys of a certan Ianuens as here it shewis And this is calde a besant cros for it is made aƚƚ of besanttis. and sych a cros may be made als sone with lytiƚƚ cakys as with besanttys. for besantys and lytiƚƚ cakys differ not bot in colore. for besanttis be euer of golden coloure. ne the coloure of the besant shaƚƚ be expressid in blasyng of armys. for it nedis not to say a besant of golde for ther be no besantis bot of golde Therfor it is to be sayd. latine sic. Ille portat vnam crucem talentatam in campo rubeo. ”

“ Ne to take the fysshe awaye that is taken in theym. For after a fysshe is taken in a mannys gynne yf the gynne be layed in the comyn waters : or elles in suche waters as he hireth / it is his ow | ne propre goodes. And yf ye take it awaye ye robbe hym : whyche is a ryght shamfull dede to ony noble man to do yt that the | uys & brybours done : whyche are punysshed for theyr euyll de | des by the necke & otherwyse whan they maye be aspyed & taken. ”

“ F ye woll be crafty in anglynge : ye must fyrste lerne to make your harnays / That is to wyte your rodde : your lynes of dyuers colours. After that ye must know how ye shall angle in what place of the water : how depe : and what ti | me of day. For what manere of fysshe : in what wedyr How ma | ny impedymentes there ben in fysshynge yt is callyd anglynge And in specyall wyth what baytys to euery dyuers fysshe in e | che moneth of the yere. How ye shall make your baytes brede where ye shall fynde theym : and how ye shall kepe theym. ”

“ Also ther be certayn nobuƚƚ men the wich beer a cros engradyd or engraylid. as it apperis here folowyng And hit is calde a cros engraylid for hit is not playne in ony parte of him bot engraylid also weƚƚ ouer his length as ouer his breed. Neuer the lees this engraylyng is no propur langage aftir the sight of thys cros: bot rather an endentyng as truth is Bot it is the comune maner of spekyng in theys armys. Therfore ye most say as I sayd a fore. And ye shaƚƚ say of him that beris theys armys in thys wyse. First in latyne thus. Portat vnam crucem ingradatam de albo in campo rubeo. ”

“ Thus me semyth that huntynge & hawkynge & also fowlynge ben so laborous and greuous that none of theym maye perfourme nor bi very meane that enduce a man to a me | ry spyryte : whyche is cause of his longe lyfe acordynge vnto yt sayd parable of Salamon. ¶ Dowteles thee folowyth it that it must nedes be the dysporte of fysshynge wyth an angle. For all other manere of fysshyng is also laborous and greuous : often makynge folkes ful wete & colde / whyche many tymes hath be seen cause of grete Infirmytees. But the angler maye haue no colde nor no dysease nor angre / but yf he be causer hymself. ”

“ Blaseris moost be ware of theis armys vmbratid of the wich: mony rewles be shewed a fore. Bot for the blasyng of theis certan armys sum ignorant men of thys crafte take the rule goyng a fore that is to wite of the colowris transmutid as ye saw a fore Bot ther be certan nobuls and gentilmen in englonde the wich beere shadoys diuerse in theyr armys as Lyon Antlop and other. and they that bere theys armis and hit be a lyon ye shaƚƚ sai in latyn ¶ Portat vnum leonē vmbratam in campo aureo ¶ Gallice. Il port dor et vng leon vmbree. ”

“ Therfore I purpose to begy at hym. ¶ The samon is a gentyll fysshe : but he is comborous for to take. For comynly he is but in depe places of grete ryuers. And for the more parte he holdyth the myddys of it : that a man maye not come at hym. And he is in season from Marche vnto Myghelmas. ¶ In whyche season ye shall angle to hym wyth thyse baytes whan ye maye gete theym. Fyrste wyth a redde worme in the begynnynge & endynge of the season. And also wyth a bobbe that bredyth in a dunghyll. And specyally wyth a souerayn bayte that bredyth on a water docke. ”

“ A Taynt is a thyng that gooth ouerwarte the federis of the wynges. and of the tayƚƚ lyke as and it were eetyn with wormys and it begynyth first to brede at the body. in the penne and that same penne shaƚƚ frete asonder. and falle a way thurrow thessame taynte and then is the hawke disparagid for aƚƚ that yere.
¶ Medecẏnẏs to Ensaẏme ẏowre hawke Take the Rote of Rasue and do it in clene water. and lay thy flesħ ther in. to temper a grete whyle. and yeue it to yowre hawke to eete. and if she eete therof. drede not bot hit shaƚƚ benymme hir grece. bot within .iij. ”

“ Thenne bende hym lyke to the bende fyguryd herafter in example. And gretter hokes ye shall mabe in the same wyse of gretter nedles : as broderers nedlis : or taylers : or shomakers nedlis spere poyntes / & {9} of shomakers nalles in especyall the beste for grete fysshe. and that they bende atte the poynt whan they ben assayed / for elles they ben not good ¶ Whan the hoke is bendyd bete the hynder ende abrode : & fyle it smothe for fretynge of thy lyne. Thenne put it in the fyre agayn : and yeue it an easy redde hete. Thenne sodaynly quenche it in water : and it woll be harde and stronge. ”