A Sport For The Ages
I came across this wonderful quote last night in a book, it dates from 1496, and is as true today as it was 510 years ago! (Though some may disagree with the hunting part.)
"Thus, it seems to me that hunting and hawking and also fowling are so tiresome and unpleasant that none of them can succeed nor can they be the best way of bringing a man into a happy frame of mind....Doubtless then, it follows that the winner should be the sport of fishing with a hook. For every other kind of fishing is also tiresome and unpleasent, often making folks very wet and cold, which many times has been the cause of great illness. Nothing can upset him, except that some fish may break away after he has been hooked, or else he may catch nothing: these are not serious....And if the angler catches fish, surely then there is no happier man."
-Lady Juliana Berners, A Treatyse of Fysshynge (1496)
"Thus, it seems to me that hunting and hawking and also fowling are so tiresome and unpleasant that none of them can succeed nor can they be the best way of bringing a man into a happy frame of mind....Doubtless then, it follows that the winner should be the sport of fishing with a hook. For every other kind of fishing is also tiresome and unpleasent, often making folks very wet and cold, which many times has been the cause of great illness. Nothing can upset him, except that some fish may break away after he has been hooked, or else he may catch nothing: these are not serious....And if the angler catches fish, surely then there is no happier man."
-Lady Juliana Berners, A Treatyse of Fysshynge (1496)
posted by Christopher Anthony Cote at 1:13 PM
2 comments
