Not actually the start of the new coarse fishing season but The Beggarstaff Brothers thought May was the appropriate month to feature a lady baiting her hook, a hook that will be suspended and fished under her bright red float.
For the anglers amongst us the float looks suspiciously like a cork-bodied crow quill Avon; maybe the Beggarstaff brothers drowned the odd worm in their spare time too.
James Pride and William Nicholson, aka The Beggarstaff Brothers, produced a series of twelve woodcuts in book form, showing the sporting pursuits of each month. Mind you the printers look as if they had gone just a little heavy on the linseed oil when they were mixing the ink judging by the oil show-through behind the type below.
A lovely image to start the month of May and more to follow each month.
