Introductory. xvii 



rarer than the first) : its late owner would 

 not part with it until he had my assur- 

 ance that it was for my own collection, 

 and not to go to America. " I do not 

 see" he said, " why all our rarest books 

 should go to America^ 



It may be well to warn collectors that 

 there exist some uncommonly clever 

 spurious editions of Walton, made by 

 aid of photography in Germany. When 

 I say clever, they would not deceive any 

 one who had any acquaintance with a 

 genuine first edition; but few of the many 

 hundreds of collectors have any chance 

 of seeing that, and I know from experi- 

 ence that there are unscrupulous second- 

 hand booksellers. On one occasion, 

 when passing an old book-shop, I looked 

 in, as usual, to see if any fishing-books 

 were for sale. After being shown some 

 common modern editions, the bookseller 

 remembered he had an old Walton 

 upstairs a first edition. He could not 

 find it, but promised to send it on. The 

 price was ridiculously low, if it proved 



b 



