viii Introductory. 



edition before me now, one of those pro- 

 ductions of the Chiswick Press, published 

 in 1 863 by Bell 6 s Daldy and Sampson 

 Low &> Co.; and though I have seen 

 nearly all of the hundred or more re- 

 prints of the " Angler" and possess 

 most of the best, this little half-bound, 

 well-worn edition will always be among 

 those most prized. 



I must have been born with a love 

 of angling. I certainly caught Prussian 

 carp in an old pond near to Craven 

 Arms in Shropshire long before I could 

 read. As a youngster of ten years I 

 remember one wet day wondering whether 

 any in that row of small books on the 

 top shelf of a book-case in my fathers 

 library were interesting. Within reach 

 were rows of Scott in green cloth with 

 white labels; big volumes of Knight's 

 " History of England" ; then a regiment 

 of Shakespeare in red ; above them a 

 charming American edition of Dickens 

 in green cloth, published, I think, by 

 Ticknor, Fields, & Osgood. These and 



