Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Part 1 Part 7

The plan was taken up with enthusiasm, and on Whitsun Tuesday of 1841 the bishops of the United Kingdom met and issued a declaration which inaugurated the Colonial Bishoprics Council. Subsequent declarations in 1872 and 1891 have served both to record progress and to stimulate to new effort. The diocese of New Zealand was founded in 1841, being endowed by the Church Missionary Society through the council, and George Augustus Selwyn was chosen as the first bishop. Since then the increase has gone on, as the result both of home effort and of the action of the colonial churches. Moreover, in many cases bishops have been sent to inaugurate new missions, as in the cases of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, Lebombo, Corea and New Guinea; and the missionary jurisdictions so founded develop in time into dioceses. Thus, instead of the ten colonial jurisdictions of 1841, there are now about a hundred foreign and colonial jurisdictions, in addition to those of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

[v.02 p.0020]

It was only very gradually that these dioceses acquired legislative independence and a determinate organization. At first, sees were created and bishops were nominated by the crown by means of letters patent; and in some cases an income was a.s.signed out of public funds. Moreover, for many years all bishops alike were consecrated in England, took the customary "oath of due obedience" to the archbishop of Canterbury, and were regarded as his extra-territorial suffragans.

But by degrees changes have been made on all these points.

_Provincial Organization._

(1) Local conditions soon made a provincial organization necessary, and it was gradually introduced. The bishop of Calcutta received letters patent as metropolitan of India when the sees of Madras and Bombay were founded; and fresh patents were issued to Bishop Broughton in 1847 and Bishop Gray in 1853, as metropolitans of Australia and South Africa respectively. Similar action was taken in 1858, when Bishop Selwyn became metropolitan of New Zealand; and again in 1860, when, on the pet.i.tion of the Canadian bishops to the crown and the colonial legislature for permission to elect a metropolitan, letters patent were issued appointing Bishop Fulford of Montreal to that office. Since then metropolitans have been chosen and provinces formed by regular synodical action, a process greatly encouraged by the resolutions of the Lambeth conferences on the subject. The const.i.tution of these provinces is not uniform. In some cases, as South Africa, New South Wales, and Queensland, the metropolitan see is fixed. Elsewhere, as in New Zealand, where no single city can claim pre-eminence, the metropolitan is either elected or else is the senior bishop by consecration. Two further developments must be mentioned: (a) The creation of diocesan and provincial synods, the first diocesan synod to meet being that of New Zealand in 1844, whilst the formation of a provincial synod was foreshadowed by a conference of Australasian bishops at Sydney in 1850; (b) towards the close of the 19th century the t.i.tle of _archbishop_ began to be a.s.sumed by the metropolitans of several provinces. It was first a.s.sumed by the metropolitans of Canada and Rupert's Land, at the desire of the Canadian general synod in 1893; and subsequently, in accordance with a resolution of the Lambeth conference of 1897, it was given by their synods to the bishop of Sydney as metropolitan of New South Wales and to the bishop of Cape Town as metropolitan of South Africa. Civil obstacles have hitherto delayed its adoption by the metropolitan of India.

_Freedom from state control._

(2) By degrees, also, the colonial churches have been freed from their rather burdensome relations with the state. The church of the West Indies was disestablished and disendowed in 1868. In 1857 it was decided, in _Regina_ v. _Eton College_, that the crown could not claim the presentation to a living when it had appointed the former inc.u.mbent to a colonial bishopric, as it does in the case of an English bishopric. In 1861, after some protest from the crown lawyers, two missionary bishops were consecrated without letters patent for regions outside British territory: C.F. Mackenzie for the Zambezi region and J.C. Patteson for Melanesia, by the metropolitans of Cape Town and New Zealand respectively. In 1863 the privy council declared, in _Long_ v. _The Bishop of Cape Town_, that "the Church of England, in places where there is no church established by law, is in the same situation with any other religious body." In 1865 it adjudged Bishop Gray's letters patent, as metropolitan of Cape Town, to be powerless to enable him "to exercise any coercive jurisdiction, or hold any court or tribunal for that purpose," since the Cape colony already possessed legislative inst.i.tutions when they were issued; and his deposition of Bishop Colenso was declared to be "null and void in law"

(_re The Bishop of Natal_). With the exception of Colenso the South African bishops forthwith surrendered their patents, and formally accepted Bishop Gray as their metropolitan, an example followed in 1865 in the province of New Zealand. In 1862, when the diocese of Ontario was formed, the bishop was elected in Canada, and consecrated under a royal mandate, letters patent being by this time entirely discredited. And when, in 1867, a coadjutor was chosen for the bishop of Toronto, an application for a royal mandate produced the reply from the colonial secretary that "it was not the part of the crown to interfere in the creation of a new bishop or bishopric, and not consistent with the dignity of the crown that he should advise Her Majesty to issue a mandate which would not be worth the paper on which it was written, and which, having been sent out to Canada, might be disregarded in the most complete manner." And at the present day the colonial churches are entirely free in this matter. This, however, is not the case with the church in India. Here the bishops of sees founded down to 1879 receive a stipend from the revenue (with the exception of the bishop of Ceylon, who no longer does so). They are not only nominated by the crown and consecrated under letters patent, but the appointment is expressly subjected "to such power of revocation and recall as is by law vested" in the crown; and where additional oversight was necessary for the church in Tinnevelly, it could only be secured by the consecration of two a.s.sistant bishops, who worked under a commission for the archbishop of Canterbury which was to expire on the death of the bishop of Madras. Since then, however, new sees have been founded which are under no such restrictions: by the creation of dioceses either in native states (Travancore and Cochin), or out of the existing dioceses (Chota Nagpur, Lucknow, &c.). In the latter case there is no _legal_ subdivision of the older diocese, the new bishop administering such districts as belonged to it under commission from its bishop, provision being made, however, that in all matters ecclesiastical there shall be no appeal but to the metropolitan of India.

_Spiritual autonomy._

(3) By degrees, also, the relations of colonial churches to the archbishop of Canterbury have changed. Until 1855 no colonial bishop was consecrated outside the British Isles, the first instance being Dr. MacDougall of Labuan, consecrated in India under a commission from the archbishop of Canterbury; and until 1874 it was held to be unlawful for a bishop to be consecrated in England without taking the suffragan's oath of due obedience. This necessity was removed by the Colonial Clergy Act of 1874, which permits the archbishop at his discretion to dispense with the oath. This, however, has not been done in all cases; and as late as 1890 it was taken by the metropolitan of Sydney at his consecration. Thus the const.i.tuent parts of the Anglican communion gradually acquire autonomy: missionary jurisdictions develop into organized dioceses, and dioceses are grouped into provinces with canons of their own. But the most complete autonomy does not involve isolation. The churches are in full communion with one another, and act together in many ways; missionary jurisdictions and dioceses are mapped out by common arrangement, and even transferred if it seems advisable; _e.g._ the diocese Honolulu (Hawaii), previously under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury, was transferred in 1900 to the Episcopal Church in the United States on account of political changes. Though the see of Canterbury claims no primacy over the Anglican communion a.n.a.logous to that exercised over the Roman Church by the popes, it is regarded with a strong affection and deference, which shows itself by frequent consultation and interchange of greetings. There is also a strong common life emphasized by common action.

[v.02 p.0021]

_Pan-Anglican Congress._

The conference of Anglican bishops from all parts of the world, inst.i.tuted by Archbishop Longley in 1867, and known as the Lambeth Conferences (_q.v._), though even for the Anglican communion they have not the authority of an ec.u.menical synod, and their decisions are rather of the nature of counsels than commands, have done much to promote the harmony and co-operation of the various branches of the Church. An even more imposing manifestation of this common life was given by the great pan-Anglican congress held in London between the 12th and 24th of June 1908, which preceded the Lambeth conference opened on the 5th of July. The idea of this originated with Bishop Montgomery, secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and was endorsed by a resolution of the United Boards of Mission in 1903. As the result of negotiations and preparations extending over five years, 250 bishops, together with delegates, clerical and lay, from every diocese in the Anglican communion, met in London, the opening service of intercession being held in Westminster Abbey. In its general character, the meeting was but a Church congress on an enlarged scale, and the subjects discussed, _e.g._. the att.i.tude of churchmen towards the question of the marriage laws or that of socialism, followed much the same lines. The congress, of course, had no power to decide or to legislate for the Church, its main value being in drawing its scattered members closer together, in bringing the newer and more isolated branches into consciousness of their contact with the parent stem, and in opening the eyes of the Church of England to the point of view and the peculiar problems of the daughter-churches.

The Anglican communion consists of the following:--(1) The Church of England, 2 provinces, Canterbury and York, with 24 and 11 dioceses respectively. (2) The Church of Ireland, 2 provinces, Armagh and Dublin, with 7 and 6 dioceses respectively. (3) The Scottish Episcopal Church, with 7 dioceses. (4) The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, with 89 dioceses and missionary jurisdictions, including North Tokyo, Kyoto, Shanghai, Cape Palmas, and the independent dioceses of Hayti and Brazil. (5) The Canadian Church, consisting of (a) the province of Canada, with 10 dioceses; (b) the province of Rupert's Land, with 8 dioceses. (6) The Church in India and Ceylon, 1 province of 11 dioceses. (7) The Church of the West Indies, 1 province of 8 dioceses, of which Barbados and the Windward Islands are at present united. (8) The Australian Church, consisting of (a) the province of New South Wales, with 10 dioceses; (b) the province of Queensland, with 5 dioceses; (c) the province of Victoria, with 5 dioceses. (9) The Church of New Zealand, 1 province of 7 dioceses, together with the missionary jurisdiction of Melanesia.

(10) The South African Church, 1 province of 10 dioceses, with the 2 missionary jurisdictions of Masbonaland and Lebombo. (11) Nearly 30 isolated dioceses and missionary jurisdictions holding mission from the see of Canterbury.

AUTHORITIES.--_Official Year-book of the Church of England_; Phillimore, _Ecclesiastical Law_, vol. ii. (London, 1895); _Digest of S.P.G. Records_ (London, 1893); E. Stock, _History of the Church Missionary Society_, 3 vols. (London, 1899); H.W. Tucker, _The English Church in Other Lands_ (London, 1886); A.T. Wirgman, _The Church and the Civil Power_ (London, 1893).

ANGLING, the art or practice of the sport of catching fish by means of a baited hook or "angle" (from the Indo-European root _ank-_, meaning "bend").[1] It is among the most ancient of human activities, and may be said to date from the time when man was in the infancy of the Stone Age, eking out a precarious existence by the slaughter of any living thing which he could reach with the rude weapons at his command. It is probable that attack on fishes was at first much the same as attack on animals, a matter of force rather than of guile, and conducted by means of a rude spear with a flint head. It is probable, too, that the primitive harpooners were not signally successful in their efforts, and so set their wits to work to devise other means of getting at the abundant food which waited for them in every piece of water near their caves. Observation would soon show them that fish fed greedily on each other and on other inhabitants of the water or living things that fell into it, and so, no doubt, arose the idea of entangling the prey by means of its appet.i.te. Hence came the notion of the first hook, which, it seems certain, was not a hook at all but a "gorge," a piece of flint or stone which the fish could swallow with the bait but which it could not eject afterwards. From remains found in cave-dwellings and their neighbourhood in different parts of the world it is obvious that these gorges varied in shape, but in general the idea was the same, a narrow strip of stone or flake of flint, either straight or slightly curved at the ends, with a groove in the middle round which the line could be fastened. Buried in the bait it would be swallowed end first; then the tightening of the line would fix it cross-wise in the quarry's, stomach or gullet and so the capture would be a.s.sured. The device still lingers in France and in a few remote parts of England in the method of catching eels which is known as "sniggling." In this a needle buried in a worm plays the part of the prehistoric gorge.

The evolution of the fish-hook from the slightly curved gorge is easily intelligible. The ends became more and more curved, until eventually an object not unlike a double hook was attained. This development would be materially a.s.sisted by man's discovery of the uses of bronze and its adaptability to his requirements. The single hook, of the pattern more or less familiar to us, was possibly a concession of the lake-dweller to what may even then have been a problem--the "education" of fish, and to a recognition of the fact that sport with the crude old methods was falling off. But it is also not improbable that in some parts of the world the single hook developed _pari pa.s.su_ with the double, and that, on the sea-sh.o.r.e for instance, where man was able to employ so adaptable a substance as sh.e.l.l, the first hook was a curved fragment of sh.e.l.l lashed with fibre to a piece of wood or bone, in such a way that the sh.e.l.l formed the bend of the hook while the wood or bone formed the shank. Both early remains and recent hooks from the Fiji Islands bear out this supposition. It is also likely that flint, horn and bone were pressed into service in a similar manner. The nature of the line or the rod that may have been used with these early hooks is largely a matter of conjecture. The first line was perhaps the tendril of a plant, the first rod possibly a sapling tree. But it is fairly obvious that the rod must have been suggested by the necessity of getting the bait out over obstacles which lay between the fisherman and the water, and that it was a device for increasing both the reach of the arm and the length of the line. It seems not improbable that the rod very early formed a part of the fisherman's equipment.

[Footnote 1: As to whether "angling" necessarily implies a rod as well as a line and hook, see the discussion in the law case of _Barnard_ v.

_Roberts_ (_Times L.R._, April 13, 1907), when the question arose as to the use of night-lines being angling; but the decision against night-lines went on the ground of the absence of the personal element rather than on the absence of a rod. The various dictionaries are blind guides on this point, and the authorities cited are inconclusive; but, broadly speaking, angling now implies three necessary factors--a personal angler, the sporting element, and the use of recognized fishing-tackle.]

_Literary History_.--From prehistoric times down to comparatively late in the days of chronicles, angling appears to have remained a practice; its development into an art or sport is a modern idea. In the earliest literature references to angling are not very numerous, but there are pa.s.sages in the Old Testament which show that fish-taking with hook as well as net was one of the common industries in the East, and that fish, where it was obtainable, formed an important article of diet. In _Numbers_ (xi. 5) the children of Israel mourn for the fish which they "did eat in Egypt freely." So much too is proved by the monuments of Egypt; indeed more, for the figures found in some of the Egyptian fishing pictures using short rods and stout lines are sometimes attired after the manner of those who were great in the land. This indicates that angling had already, in a highly civilized country, taken its place among the methods of diversion at the disposal of the wealthy, though from the uncompromising nature of the tackle depicted and the apparent simplicity of the fish it would scarcely be safe to a.s.sume that in Egypt angling arrived at the dignity of becoming an "art." In Europe it took very much longer for the taking of fish to be regarded even as an amus.e.m.e.nt, and the earliest references to it in the Greek and Latin cla.s.sics are not very satisfying to the sportsman.

[v.02 p.0022]

There is, however, a pa.s.sage in the _Odyssey_ (xii. 247) which is of considerable importance, as it shows that fishing with rod and line was well enough understood in early Greece to be used as a popular ill.u.s.tration. It occurs in the well-known scene where Scylla seizes the companions of Odysseus out of the ship and bears them upwards, just as "some fisher on a headland with a long rod" brings small fishes gasping to the sh.o.r.e. Another important, though comparatively late, pa.s.sage in Greek poetry is the twenty-first idyll of Theocritus.

In this the fisherman Asphalion relates how in a dream he hooked a large golden fish and describes graphically, albeit with some obscurity of language, how he "played" it. Asphalion used a rod and fished from a rock, much after the manner of the Homeric angler. Among other Greek writers, Herodotus has a good many references to fish and fishing; the capture of fish is once or twice mentioned or implied by Plato, notably in the _Laws_ (vii. 823); Aristotle deals with fishes in his _Natural History_, and there are one or two fishing pa.s.sages in the anthology. But in Greek literature, as a whole the subject of angling is not at all prominent. In writers of late Greek, however, there is more material. Plutarch, for instance, gives us the famous story of the fishing match between Antony and Cleopatra, which has been utilized by Shakespeare. Moreover, it is in Greek that the first complete treatise on fishing which has come down to us is written, the _Halieutica_ of Oppian (c. A.D. 169). It is a hexameter poem in five books with perhaps more technical than sporting interest, and not so much even of that as the length of the work would suggest. Still it contains some information about tackle and methods, and some pa.s.sages describing battles with big fish, in the right spirit of enthusiasm.

Also in Greek is what is famous as the first reference in literature to fly-fishing, in the fifteenth book of Aelian's _Natural History_ (3rd century A.D.). It is there described how the Macedonians captured a certain spotted fish in the river Astraeus by means of a lure composed of coloured wool and feathers, which was presumably used in the manner now known as "dapping." That there were other Greek writers who dealt with fish and fishing and composed "halieutics" we know from Athenaeus. In the first book of his _Deipnosophistae_ he gives a list of them. But he compares their work unfavourably with the pa.s.sage of Homer already cited, in a way which suggests that their knowledge of angling was not a great advance upon the knowledge of their remote literary ancestors. In Latin literature allusions to angling are rather more numerous than in Greek, but on the whole they are unimportant. Part of a poem by Ovid, the _Halieuticon_, composed during the poet's exile at Tomi after A.D. 9, still survives. In other Roman writers the subject is only treated by way of allusion or ill.u.s.tration. Martial, however, provides, among other pa.s.sages, what may perhaps be ent.i.tled to rank as the earliest notice of private fishery rights--the epigram _Ad Piscatorem_, which warns would-be poachers from casting a line in the Baian lake. Pliny the elder devoted the ninth book of his _Natural History_ to fishes and water-life, and Plautus, Cicero, Catullus, Horace, Juvenal, Pliny the younger and Suetonius all allude to angling here and there.

Agricultural writers, too, such as Varro and Columella, deal with the subject of fish ponds and stews rather fully. Later than any of these, but still just included in Latin literature, we have Ausonius (_c_.

A.D. 320) and his well-known idyll the _Mosella_, which contains a good deal about the fish of the Moselle and the methods of catching them. In this poem is to be found the first recognizable description of members of the salmon family, and, though the manner of their application is rather doubtful, the names _salmo, salar_ and _fario_ strike a responsive note in the breast of the modern angler.

_Post-cla.s.sical Literature_.--As to what happened in the world of angling in the first few centuries of the Christian era we know little. It may be inferred, however, that both fish and fishermen occupied a more honourable position in Christendom than they ever did before. The prominence of fishermen in the gospel narratives would in itself have been enough to bring this about, but it also happened that the Greek word for fish, [Greek: ICHTHUS], had an anagrammatic significance which the devout were not slow to perceive. The initials of the word resolve into what is practically a confession of faith, [Greek: Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter](Jesus Christ, Son of G.o.d, Saviour). It is therefore not surprising that we find the fish very prominent as a sacred emblem in the painting and sculpture of the primitive church, or that Clement of Alexandria should have recommended it, among other things, as a device for signet rings or seals. The fisherman too is frequently represented in early Christian art, and it is worthy of remark that he more often uses a line and hook than a net. The references to fish and fishing scattered about in the writings of the early fathers for the most part reflect the two ideas of the sacredness of the fish and divine authorization of the fisherman; the second idea certainly prevailed until the time of Izaak Walton, for he uses it to justify his pastime. It is also not unlikely that the practice of fasting (in many cases fish was allowed when meat was forbidden) gave the art of catching fish additional importance.

It seems at any rate to have been a consideration of weight when sites were chosen for monasteries in Europe, and in many cases when no fish-producing river was at hand the lack was supplied by the construction of fish-ponds. Despite all this, however, save for an occasional allusion in the early fathers, there is hardly a connecting link between the literature of Pagan Rome and the literature that sprang up on the invention of printing. One volume, the _Geoponica_, a Greek compilation concerning whose authorship and date there has been much dispute, is attributed in _Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ to the beginning of the 10th century. It contains one book on fish, fish-ponds and fishing, with prescriptions for baits, &c., extracted for the most part from other writers. But it seems doubtful whether its date should not be placed very much earlier. Tradition makes it a Carthaginian treatise translated into Greek. A more satisfactory fragment of fishing literature is to be found in the Colloquy of aelfric, written (_ad pucros linguae latinae locutionis exercendos_) towards the end of the same century. aelfric became archbishop of Canterbury in A.D. 995, and the pa.s.sage in the Anglo-Saxon text-book takes honourable rank as the earliest reference to fishing in English writings, though it is not of any great length. It is to be noted that the fisher who takes a share in the colloquy states that he prefers fishing in the river to fishing in the sea. Ascribed to the 13th or 14th century is a Latin poem _De Vetula_, whose author was apparently Richard de Fournival. It contains a pa.s.sage on angling, and was placed to the credit of Ovid when first printed (c. 1470). A ma.n.u.script in the British museum, _Comptes des pecheries de l'eglise de Troyes_ (A.D. 1349-1413), gives a minute account of the fisheries with the weights of fish captured and the expenses of working. There is, however, practically nothing else of importance till we come to the first printed book on angling (a translation of Oppian, 1478, excepted), and so to the beginning of the literature proper. This first book was a little volume printed in Antwerp probably in 1492 at the press of Matthias van der Goes. In size it is little more than a pamphlet, and it treats of birds as well as fish:--_Dit Boecxken leert hoe men mach Voghelen ... ende ... visschen vangen metten kanden. Ende oeck andersins...._ ("This book teaches how one may catch birds ...

and ... fish with the hands, and also otherwise"). Only one copy apparently survives, in the Denison library, and a translation privately printed for Mr. Alfred Denison in 1872 was limited to twenty-five copies. At least two other editions of the book appeared in Flemish, and it also made its way, in 1502, to Germany, where, translated and with certain alterations and additions, it seems to have been re-issued frequently. Next in date comes the famous _Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle_, printed at Westminster by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 as a part of the second edition of _The Book of St. Albans_. The treatise is for this reason a.s.sociated with the name of Dame Juliana Berners, but that somewhat dubious compiler can have had nothing whatever to do with it. The treatise is almost certainly a compilation from some earlier work on angling ("bokes of credence" are mentioned in its text), possibly from a ma.n.u.script of the earlier part of the 15th century, of which a portion is preserved in the Denison collection. This was published in 1883 by Mr. Thomas Satch.e.l.l under the t.i.tle _An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle_. But it is also possible that a still older work was the parent of both books, for it has been held that the ma.n.u.script is an independent version. However this may be, it is certain that the treatise itself has been the parent of many other works. Many of the instructions contained in it are handed down from generation to generation with little change except in diction. Especially is this the case with the list of trout-flies, a meagre twelve, which survives in many fishing books until well into the 18th century.

[v.02 p.0023]

From the beginning of the 16th century the fisherman's library begins to grow apace, as, though books solely devoted to fishing are not yet frequent, works on husbandry and country pursuits almost all contain something on the subject. In Italy the fisherman and his occupation apparently were considered poetically; the word _pescatore_ or its cognates are common on Italian 16th and 17th century t.i.tle-pages, though in many instances the fulfilment of the implied promise is not adequate, from an angler's point of view. From the pages of _Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ a fairly long list of Italian writers could be gleaned. Among them may be mentioned Sannazaro (_Piscatoria_, &c., Rome, 1526) and Andrea Calmo (_Rime pescatorie_, Venice, 1557). A century later was Parthenius, who published a volume of _Halieutica_ at Naples. This writer has an amusing reference to the art of "tickling" trout as practised in Britain. In Germany, as has been shown, the original little Flemish treatise had a wide vogue in the 16th century, and fishing played a part in a good many books on husbandry such as that of Conrad Heresbach (1570). Fish and fish-ponds formed the main topic of a Latin work by Dubravius (1552), while Gesner in the middle of the 16th and Aldrovandi at the beginning of the 17th centuries wrote at length on the natural history of fishes.

In France the subject is less well represented, but _Les Pescheries_ of Chris. de Gamon (Lyons, 1599) and _Le Plaisir des champs_ of Cl.

Gauchet (Paris, 1604) deserve to be noted. _Les Ruses innocentes_ by Francois Fortin, first published at Paris in 1600, and several times in later editions, is characterized by Messrs Westwood and Satch.e.l.l as "on the whole the most interesting contribution made by France to the literature of angling." England during the most part of the 16th century was evidently well enough served by the original treatise out of _The Book of St. Albans_. It was republished twice by Wynkyn de Worde, six or seven times by Copland, and some five times by other printers. It was also practically republished in _A Booke of Fishing_ by L.M. (1590). L.M. (Leonard Mascall) ranks as an angling author, but he did little more than borrow and edit the treatise. The same may be said of another version of _The Book of St. Albans_ "now newly collected by W.G. Faulkener" and issued in 1596.

_Modern Literature_.--In 1600 appeared John Taverner's _Certaine Experiments concerning Fish and Fruite_, and after this the period of angling literature proper begins. The _Secrets of Angling_ (1613), by J(ohn) D(ennys). Esq., is one of the most important volumes in the angler's library, both on account of the excellence of the verse in which it is written and also on account of its practical value.

Gervase Markham, "the first journalist," as he has been called, published his first book of husbandry at the same date, and, as in most of his many books on the same subject, devoted a certain amount of s.p.a.ce to fishing. But Markham gathered his materials in a rather shameless manner and his angling pa.s.sages have little originality.

Thomas Barker's _The Art of Angling_ (1st ed., 1651) takes a more honourable position, and received warm commendation from Izaak Walton himself, who followed it in 1653 with _The Compleat Angler_. So much has been written about this treasured cla.s.sic that it is only necessary to indicate its popularity here by saying that its editions occupy some twenty pages in _Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ (1883), and that since that work was published at least forty new editions have to be added to the list. During Walton's life-time the book ran through five editions, and with the fifth (1676) was incorporated Charles Cotton's second part, the "instructions how to angle for a trout or grayling, in a clear stream." In some cases too there was added a third book, the fourth edition of _The Experienced Angler_, by Robert Venables (1st ed., 1662). The three books together bore the t.i.tle of _The Universal Angler_. Venables's portion was dropped later, but it is worth reading, and contained sound instruction though it has not the literary merit of Walton and Cotton.

A few other notable books of the century call for enumeration, _The Gentleman's Recreation_ by Nicholas c.o.x (1674), Gilbert's _The Angler's Delight_ (1676), Chetham's _Vade-Mec.u.m_ (1681), _The Complete Troller_ by Robert n.o.bbes (1682), R. Franck's _Northern Memoirs_ (1694), and _The True Art of Angling_ by J.S. (1696). Of these Chetham, n.o.bbes, Franck and J.S. have the merit of considerable originality. Franck has gained some notoriety by his round abuse of Walton. In the 18th century among others we find _The Secrets of Angling_ by C.G. (1705), Robert Hewlett's _The Angler's Sure Guide_ (1706), _The Whole Art of Fishing_ (1714), _The Compleat Fisherman_ by James Saunders (1724), _The Art of Angling_ by R. Brookes (1740), another book with the same t.i.tle by R. and C. Bowlker (Worcester, c. 1750), _The Complete Sportsman_ by Thomas Fairfax (c. 1760), _The Angler's Museum_ by T. Shirley (1784), and _A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling_ by Thomas Best (1787). Of these only Saunders's, Bowlker's and Best's books are of much importance, the rest being for the most part "borrowed." One volume of verse in the 18th century calls for notice, Moses Browne's _Piscatory Eclogues_ (1729). Among greater names we get angling pa.s.sages in Pope, Gay and Thomson; the two last were evidently brothers of the angle.

With the 19th century angling literature becomes too big a subject to be treated in detail, and it is only possible to glance at a few of the more important books and writers. Daniel's _Rural Sports_ appeared in 1801; it is a treasure-house of odd facts. In 1828 Sir Humphry Davy published his famous _Salmonia_, which was reviewed in the _Quarterly_ by Sir Walter Scott. At about this time too were appearing the _Noctes Ambrosianae_ in _Blackwood's Magazine_. Christopher North (Professor Wilson) often touched upon angling in them, besides contributing a good many angling articles to the magazine. In 1835 that excellent angling writer Thomas Tod Stoddart began his valuable series of books with _The Art of Angling as Practised in Scotland_. In 1839 he published _Songs and Poems_, among which are pieces of great merit.

During this period, too, first appeared, year by year, the _Newcastle Fishers' Garlands_, collected by Joseph Crawhall afterwards and republished in 1864. These border verses, like Stoddart's, have often a genuine ring about them which is missing from the more polished effusions of Gay and Thomson. Alfred Ronalds's _The Fly-Fisher's Entomology_ (1st ed., 1836) was a publication of great importance, for it marked the beginning of the scientific spirit among trout-fishers.

It ran through many editions and is still a valuable book of reference. A step in angling history is also marked by George Pulman's _Vade-Mec.u.m of Fly-fishing for Trout_ (1841), for it contains the first definite instructions on fishing with a "dry fly." Another is marked by Hewett Wheatley's _The Rod and the Line_ (1849), where is to be found the earliest reference to the "eyed" hook. Yet another is marked by W.C. Stewart's _The Practical Angler_ (1857), in which is taught the new doctrine of "up-stream" fishing for trout. This is a book of permanent value. Among the many books of this period Charles Kingsley's _Miscellanies_ (1859) stands out, for it contains the immortal "Chalk-Stream Studies." The work of Francis Francis begins at about the same time, though his _A Book on Angling_, which is still one of the most valuable text-books, was not first published till 1867. Another well-known and excellent writer, Mr. H. Cholmondeley Pennell, began in the early 'sixties; it is to him that we owe the admirable volumes on fresh-water fishing in the "Badminton Library."

Among other English writers mention must be made of Messrs William Senior, John Bickerd.y.k.e and F.M. Halford, who have all performed signal services for angling and its literature. (See further bibliography _ad fin_.) In America the latter half of the 19th century produced a good deal of fishing literature, much of it of a high standard.

[v.02 p.0024]

_I go a-Fishing_ by Dr. W.C. Prime (1873), _Fishing with the Fly_ by C.F. Orvis, A. Nelson Cheney and others (1883), _The American Salmon Fisherman_ and _Fly Rods and Fly Tackle_ by H.P. Wells (1886 and 1885), _Little Rivers_ and other books by the Rev. H. Van d.y.k.e--these are only a few specially distinguished in style and matter. Germany and France have not contributed so largely to the modern library, but in the first country we find several useful works by Max von dem Borne, beginning with the _Handbuch der Angelfischerei_ of 1875, and there are a good many other writers who have contributed to the subject, while in France there are a few volumes on fishing by different hands. The most noticeable is M.G. Albert Pet.i.t's _La Truite de riviere_ (1897), an admirable book on fly-fishing. As yet, however, though there are many enthusiastic anglers in France, the sport has not established itself so firmly as to have inspired much literature of its own; the same may be said of Germany.

_Modern Conditions_.--In the modern history of angling there are one or two features that should be touched upon. The great increase in the number of fishermen has had several results. One is a corresponding increase in the difficulty of obtaining fishing, and a notable rise in the value of rivers, especially those which are famed for salmon and trout. Salmon-fishing now may be said to have become a pastime of the rich, and there are signs that trout-fishing will before long have to be placed in the same exclusive category, while even the right to angle for less-esteemed fish will eventually be a thing of price. The development is natural, and it has naturally led to efforts on the part of the angling majority to counteract, if possible, the growing difficulty. These efforts have been directed chiefly in two ways, one the establishment of fishing clubs, the other the adoption of angling in salt water. The fishing club of the big towns was originally a social inst.i.tution, and its members met together to sup, converse on angling topics and perhaps to display notable fish that they had caught. Later, however, arose the idea that it would be a convenience if a club could give its members privileges of fishing as well as privileges of reunion. So it comes about that all over the United Kingdom, in British colonies and dependencies, in the United States, and also in Germany and France, fishing clubs rent waters, undertake preservation and restocking and generally lead an active and useful existence. It is a good sign for the future of angling and anglers that they are rapidly increasing in number. One of the oldest fishing clubs, if not the oldest, was the Schuylkill club, founded in Pennsylvania in 1732. An account of its history was published in Philadelphia in 1830. Among the earliest clubs in London are to be numbered such societies as The True Waltonians, The Piscatorial, The Friendly Anglers and The Gresham, which are still flourishing. A certain amount of literary activity has been observable in the world of angling clubs, and several volumes of "papers" are on the records.

Most noticeable perhaps are the three volumes of _Anglers' Evenings_ published in 1880-1894, a collection of essays by members of the Manchester Anglers' a.s.sociation. The other method of securing a continuance of sport, the adoption of sea-angling as a subst.i.tute for fresh-water fishing, is quite a modern thing. Within the memory of men still young the old tactics of hand-line and force were considered good enough for sea fish. Now the fresh-water angler has lent his centuries of experience in deluding his quarry; the sea-angler has adopted many of the ideas presented to him, has modified or improved others, and has developed the capture of sea-fish into a science almost as subtle as the capture of their fresh-water cousins. One more modern feature, which is also a result of the increase of anglers, is the great advance made in fish-culture, fish-stocking and fish-acclimatization during the last half-century. Fish-culture is now a recognized industry; every trout-stream of note and value is restocked from time to time as a matter of course; salmon-hatcheries are numerous, though their practical utility is still a debated matter, in Great Britain at any rate; coa.r.s.e fish are also bred for purposes of restocking; and, lastly, it is now considered a fairly simple matter to introduce fish from one country to another, and even from continent to continent. In England the movement owes a great deal to Francis Francis, who, though he was not the earliest worker in the field, was among the first to formulate the science of fish-breeding; his book _Fish-Culture_, first published in 1863, still remains one of the best treatises on the subject. In the United States, where fishery science has had the benefit of generous governmental and official support and countenance and so has reached a high level of achievement, Dr. T. Garlick (_The Artificial Reproduction of Fishes_, Cleveland, 1857) is honoured as a pioneer. On the continent of Europe the latter half of the 19th century saw a very considerable and rapid development in fish-culture, but until comparatively recently the propagation and care of fish in most European waters have been considered almost entirely from the point of view of the fish-stew and the market. As to what has been done in the way of acclimatization it is not necessary to say much. Trout (_Salmo fario_) were introduced to New Zealand in the late 'sixties from England; in the 'eighties rainbow trout (_Salmo irideus_) were also introduced from California; now New Zealand provides the finest trout-fishing of its kind in the world. American trout of different kinds have been introduced into England, and brown trout have been introduced to America; but neither innovation can be said to have been an unqualified success, though the rainbow has established itself firmly in some waters of the United Kingdom. It is still regarded with some suspicion, as it has a tendency to wander from waters which do not altogether suit it. For the rest, trout have been established in Ceylon, in Kashmir and in South Africa, and early in 1906 an attempt was made to carry them to British Central Africa. In fact the possibilities of acclimatization are so great that, it seems probable, in time no river of the civilized world capable of holding trout will be without them.

METHODS AND PRACTICE

Angling now divides itself into two main divisions, fishing in fresh water and fishing in the sea. The two branches of the sport have much in common, and sea-angling is really little more than an adaptation of fresh-water methods to salt-water conditions. Therefore it will not be necessary to deal with it at great length and it naturally comes in the second place. Angling in fresh water is again divisible into three princ.i.p.al parts, fishing on the surface, _i.e._ with the fly; in mid-water, _i.e._ with a bait simulating the movements of a small fish or with the small fish itself; and on the bottom with worms, paste or one of the many other baits which experience has shown that fish will take. With the premise that it is not intended here to go into the minutiae of instruction which may more profitably be discovered in the many works of reference cited at the end of this article, some account of the subdivisions into which these three styles of fishing fall may be given.

_Fresh-Water Fishing._

_Fly-fishing_.--Fly-fishing is the most modern of them, but it is the most highly esteemed, princ.i.p.ally because it is the method par excellence of taking members of the most valuable sporting family of fish, the _Salmonidae_. It may roughly be considered under three heads, the use of the "wet" or sunk fly, of the "dry" or floating fly, and of the natural insect. Of these the first is the most important, for it covers the widest field and is the most universally practised.

There are few varieties of fish which may not either consistently or occasionally be taken with the sunk fly in one of its two forms. The large and gaudy bunch of feathers, silk and tinsel with which salmon, very large trout, black ba.s.s and occasionally other predaceous fish are taken is not, strictly speaking, a fly at all. It rather represents, if anything, some small fish or subaqueous creature on which the big fish is accustomed to feed and it may conveniently receive the generic name of salmon-fly. The smaller lures, however, which are used to catch smaller trout and other fish that habitually feed on insect food are in most cases intended to represent that food in one of its forms and are ent.i.tled to the name of "artificial flies." The dry or floating fly is simply a development of the imitation theory, and has been evolved from the wet fly in course of closer observation of the habits of flies and fish in certain waters.

Both wet and dry fly methods are really a subst.i.tute for the third and oldest kind of surface-fishing, the use of a natural insect as a bait.

Each method is referred to incidentally below.

[v.02 p.0025]