INTRODUCTION 13 



Best of all, by means of my membership of the True 

 Waltonians, I had the run of the Rickmansworth water. 

 It was here that I learnt fly-fishing, even to the extent 

 of catching my first trout, and here that I went through 

 a course of practice at some large dace which then 

 existed in the Colne ; and they very freely, to the 

 extent of half a pound or so weight, took the dry fly, 

 which in later years they did not. As a very active 

 travelling member of the special correspondence staff 

 of the Daily News I went here and there on various 

 errands, and was soon known never to travel without 

 my rod and creel. Then the introduction to my old 

 friend Gowing of the Gentleman's Magazine, as I have 

 already described, made me as eager to write as I 

 was to fish ; and, in a word, this was how " Red 

 Spinner " was manufactured. 



Now I have explained how I became a practical 

 angling writer, and the half-dozen or so of books which 

 I inflicted upon my brethren of the Angle gradually 

 came into existence. It is necessary to mention this 

 to account for the fact that the majority of what I 

 write has appeared before the public from year to 

 year. Indeed, I did not allow the grass to grow under 

 my feet. My voyage to Queensland gave me a book, 

 and a series of the Gentleman's Magazine chapters gave 

 me another ; and so it went on from time to time, as 

 I had the opportunity, in magazines and papers, finding 

 what I may call even a ready market for all I chose to 

 publish. The reader will understand, therefore, that 

 after these half-dozen books, if any of them are to be 

 found registered against me, there was not a great deal 

 left for gathering together j and that is the excuse for 

 this^volume which I have ventured to call the After- 

 math of Red Spinner. Indeed, just before the war 

 broke out I had agreed to supply a book to my old 



