English writer lived between 1300 and 1400 (the year of birth could be 1388), she could’ve been abbess of the Priory of St. Mary of Sopwell, near St. Albans in Hertfordshire.
She is known mostly for having drafted “The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Blasing of Arms”, which also includes fishing. Even if the book appears to be written by at least two people, and it is considered reworked from a previous French text, the hunting section bears the name of “Lady Juliana Berners”. It is thought that she described with peculiarity the methods of fly fishing, so much that a lot of women’s clubs of sport fishing, both in Europe and America, carry her name.
Her last name would imply that she was the daughter of a courtier or that she was the wife of Julians Barnes. In any case, despite her origins, she was surely an instructed woman and educated at hunting, even with the hawk, and at fishing.
The Properties of a Good Greyhound
A greyhound should be headed like a Snake,
And necked like a Drake,
Footed like a Cat,
Tailed like a Rat,
Sided like a Team,
Chined like a Beam.
The first year he must learn to feed,
The second year to field him lead,
The third year he is fellow-like,
The fouth year there is none sike, *
The fifth year he is good enough,
The sixth year he shall hold the plough,
The seventh year he will avail
Great bitches for to assail
The eighth year lick ladle,
The ninth year cart saddle,
And when he is comen to that year
Have him to the tanner,
For the best hound that ever bitch had
At nine year he is full bad.
