16 AN OPEN LETTER TO WILLIAM SENIOR 



situation was improvng. And now I have had the 

 privilege of actually reading that volume in the proof 

 sheets and can report the glad tidings for the benefit 

 of my brethren of the angle. At last they will be able 

 to procure one of your books by the simple process of 

 entering a bookseller's and asking for it. I do not pro- 

 pose here to say much about the new volume except 

 that it will certainly stand beside Waterside Sketches on 

 that special shelf and that it will take its turn with the 

 others in the regular sequence of re-reading. It is the 

 real article, what I may call " genuine Red Spinner," 

 hallmark and all. I must express my satisfaction that 

 you have given in it some further record of the angling 

 in other lands which you have enjoyed in your much- 

 travelled experience. The Antipodes, Canada, the 

 United States, Norway, Belgium before the tragedy 

 you make it all just as vivid to us as those cold spring 

 days on the rolling Tay, the glowing time of lilac 

 and Mayfly, or the serene evenings when the roach float 

 dips sweetly at every swim. Whatever one's mood, 

 salmon or gudgeon, spinning bait or black gnat, Middle- 

 sex or Mississippi, your pages have something to suit it. 

 Ever since I first met you, on a September evening at 

 Newbury now nearly twenty years ago, you have con- 

 sistently given me ever-increasing cause for gratitude. 

 Whether as accomplished journalist and Editor of the 

 Fifld, as writer and author of books, as a man with a 

 genius for friendship, if I may quote the phrase, or as 

 an expert with rod and line in whatever guise you 

 appeared I had cause to thank you for allowing me 

 " to call you Master." That I am able to do so now 

 thus publicly means that one at least of my ambitions 

 has been realised. And I will take leave to subscribe 

 myself with all affection, " Your scholar," 



'H. T. SHERINCHAM. 



