136 THE SALMON 



well-earned leisure either to the active enjoyment of the 

 sport or to the kindred hobby of collecting the litera- 

 ture of the subject — his fishing library, which is now 

 an heirloom at Ossington, being the most perfect private 

 collection in existence. Among his treasures are the 

 ' Book of Angling,' printed in 1606, of which there are 

 said to be only three copies known ; a Flemish treatise 

 by Van der Goes, printed as early as 1492 ; and the 

 Book of St. Albans, ascribed to Dame Juliana Berners, 

 containing the quaint ' Treatyse of Fyshynge with an 

 Angle.' He was the eighth son of John Denison, 

 Esq., of Ossington, Notts, born on August 23, 181 6, 

 and was a commoner of Christ Church, Oxford. 

 After taking his degree, he went out with his brother 

 Henry to seek his fortune in New South Wales. When 

 his brother, Sir William Denison, became Governor- 

 General of Australia, he served as his private secretary. 

 After many and pressing difficulties, with which he had 

 to contend single-handed, his sheep-farming proved a 

 success, and in the year 1857 he was able to return to 

 his native country with a modest competence. His 

 elder brother, the Right Hon. John Evelyn Denison, 

 afterwards Viscount Ossington, was chosen that year 

 Speaker of the House of Commons ; and during the 

 whole period of his tenure of the office which he so 

 adorned, from 1857 to 1872 inclusive, Alfred was his 



