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.
Walton’s inimitable “Discourse on Angling” was first printed in 1653, in an elegant duodecimo, with plates of the most considerable fish cut in steel. This edition, and three subsequent ones, consisted wholly of what is now called part the first of the “Complete Angler,” or Walton’s individual portion of the work. While engaged in 1676, being the eighty-third year of his age, in preparing the fifth edition, he received from his friend, Charles Cotton, Esq., a gentleman in Derbyshire, “Instructions how to angle for a Trout or Grayling in a clear Stream,” as they were first called, which afterwards became part the second of this joint publication.
Angling has been thought of sufficient importance to be protected by statute. This first occurred in the reign of Edward I., when imprisonment and treble damages were awarded against all that should trespass on the rights of authorised fishers. By the 31 Hen. VIII. c. 2, s. 2, it was enacted, “If any evil disposed persons shall fish in the day time, from six in the morning to six in the evening, in any ponds, stews, or moats, with nets, hooks, or bait, against the will of the owners, they shall, on the conviction thereof, at the suit of the king, or the party aggrieved, suffer imprisonment for the space of three months, and find security for their good behaviour.” By the 5 Eliz., c. 21, s. 2, it is enacted, “If any person shall unlawfully break or destroy any head or dam of a fish pond, or shall wrongfully fish therein, with intent to take or kill fish, he shall, on conviction at the assizes or sessions, at the suit of the king or the party injured, be imprisoned three months and pay treble damages; and after the expiration of the said three months, shall find sureties for good behaviour for seven years to come.”
By the 22 & 23 Car. II. c. 25, s. 7, it is enacted, “That if any person shall, at any time, use any casting net, drag net, shore net, or other net whatsoever; or any angle, hair, noose, troll, or spear; or shall lay any wears, pots, nets, fish-hooks, or other engines; or shall take any fish by any means whatsoever, in any river, stew, moat, pond, or other water, or shall be aiding thereunto, without the consent of the owner of the water, and be convicted thereof within one month after the offence committed, such offender shall give to the party injured such satisfaction as a justice shall appoint, not exceeding treble damages; and pay the overseers of the poor such sum, not exceeding 10s., as the justice shall think fit: in default of payment, the said penalties to be levied by distress; or the offender to be committed to the house of correction for a term not exceeding one month, unless he enter into a bond, with surety, in a sum not exceeding £10, never to offend in like manner.” Justices are also authorised to destroy all such articles as before recited and adapted to the taking of fish, as may be found in the possession of offenders when taken. Persons aggrieved may appeal to the quarter sessions, whose judgment shall be final.
And by the 4 & 5 William and Mary it is enacted, “That no person (except makers and sellers of nets, owners of a river or fishery, authorised fishermen and their apprentices) shall keep any net, angle, leap, pike, or rather engine, for taking of fish. The proprietor of any river or fishery, or persons by them authorised, may seize, and keep to his own use, any engine which shall be found in the custody of any person fishing in any river or fishery, without the consent of the owner or occupier. And such owner, occupier, or person authorised by either, sanctioned by the consent of any justice, in the day time, may search the houses or other places of any unqualified person, who shall be suspected of having such nets, or other engines in his possession, and the same to seize and keep to their own use, or cut in pieces and destroy.” Stealing fish in disguise is made felony of by the 9 Geo. I. c. 22. “If any person armed and disguised shall unlawfully steal, or take away, any fish out of any river or pond, (whether armed or not,) shall unlawfully and maliciously break down the head or mound of any fish pond, whereby the fish shall be lost and destroyed, or shall rescue any person in custody for any such offence, or procure any other to join him therein, he shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.” This (commonly called the Black Act) is made perpetual by 31 Geo. II. c. 42.
By the 5 Geo. III. c. 14, s. 1, it is enacted, “That if any person shall enter into any park or paddock enclosed, or into any garden, orchard, or yard, belonging to, or adjoining to, any dwelling-house, wherein shall be any river, pond, moat, or other water, and, by any means whatsoever, (without the consent of the owner,) steal, kill, or destroy, any fish, bred, kept, or preserved therein, or shall be assisting therein, or shall receive or buy any such fish, knowing them to be such, shall, upon conviction, be transported for seven years. Persons making confession of such offence, and giving evidence against an accomplice, who, in pursuance thereof, shall be convicted, will be entitled to a free pardon.” And by the same act, section 3, it is provided, “That if any person shall take, kill, or destroy, or attempt to take, kill, or destroy, any fish in any river or stream, pool, pond, or any other water, (not being in any park or paddock enclosed, or in any garden, orchard, or yard, belonging or adjoining to a dwelling-house, but in any other enclosed ground, being private property,) such person being thereof convicted by confession, or the oath of one witness before a justice, shall forfeit five pounds to the owner of the fishery of such river or other water; and in default thereof shall be committed to the house of correction for a time not exceeding six months.”
By the 1 Eliz. c. 17, “All fishermen are forbidden to destroy the fry of fish, small salmon and trout, under a penalty of twenty shillings;” and by the 4 & 5 Anne, for the protection of salmon in the counties of Southampton and Wilts, no salmon shall be taken between the first of August and twelfth of November. Statutes of Geo. I. and II., forbid the same fish to be taken in the rivers Severn, Wye, Ware, Ouse, &c., under eighteen inches long.
It is held that when the lord of the manor has the soil on both sides of the river, as in the case of the Severn, the right of fishing goes with it; and he who intrudes thereon must prove his claim of a free fishery; but when the tide ebbs and flows, and the river is an arm of the sea, as in the case of the Thames, the right is presumed to be common, and he who claims a privilege must prove it.—Ency. Lon. (Vide Fish, Fishing, &c. &c.)
Animal, s. A living creature.
Animal, a. That belongs or relates to animals.