ia INTRODUCTION 



visit that I was to pay to a trout river at Brocken- 

 hurst ; but practically nothing came of it, nor did a 

 casual chance which Lord Palmerston gave me at 

 Broadlands, which was too far from my beat and alto- 

 gether above me in its salmon runs. As for perch, 

 which I had fished for as a boy, there were none to be 

 heard of in the district. 



In due time I was transferred from Lymington to 

 Southampton, where I remember catching smelts, and 

 nice little baskets of them, from the pier at the bottom 

 of High Street. Next I went to Manchester, where 

 there was less of such fishing as I required than before ; 

 and on a daily paper like the Guardian, journalism 

 soon proved to be real business to engage my attention, 

 and left me without the slight opportunities I found 

 even with the Lymington Chronicle or Hants Inde- 

 pendent. In due time fortune, as I thought, beamed 

 upon me when I got an appointment on the London 

 Daily News, which was then in its prime. Here I began 

 to find what fishing meant, for very early, thanks to 

 the kindness of Moy Thomas and his friend Miles, the 

 publisher, who was one of the directors, I got a ticket 

 for the famous New River reservoirs. I was here 

 introduced to many members of the fishing club men 

 of the place and became a member of the Stanley 

 Anglers, where I won some prizes, and of the somewhat 

 famous and somewhat high-class True Waltonian 

 Society, which met at Stoke Newington. The general 

 result of this was that wherever there was fishing to 

 be secured I got it, and was seldom without opportunity 

 of turning that longing eye of which I aforetime spoke 

 to the waterside. I made pretty rapid progress too, 

 for I became a well-known pike fisher at Stoke Newing- 

 ton, got large chub and much perch, and generally 

 took various degrees in the piscatorial art, 



