viii Preface. 



The local fame of this day's sport clung to my 

 grandfather for many years, and lived in his 

 memory for life, giving him a high opinion of his 

 own good fortune and skill. 



He chiefly affected gorge -bait fishing (not then, 

 as now, wisely and humanely forbidden in the 

 Thames) in lakes and preserved waters, but on the 

 Thames he was also noted as a good all-round 

 fisherman. So also was his son, my father 

 angling was his favourite amusement on the 

 Thames, and elsewhere, for he often went farther 

 afield for his sport, and I was always his 

 companion. It is no wonder, therefore, that at 

 an early age I became initiated into some of 

 the small mysteries and devices of the gentle 

 art (a misnomer, surely, for some of its practices 

 are very ungentle and, until the refining spirit 

 of true sport with the angle corrects them, 

 are decidedly cruel). At nine years old I 

 was already a good gudgeon and perch fisher ; 

 indeed, when I was not quite seven I wandered 

 from home for three miles to the river Lea 

 to catch minnows, fishing with a red worm 

 on a proper hook and line contrary to the usual 

 puerile form which begins with cotton and a 

 bent pin. 



Then for some happy years during my school 

 days at Eeading I had good practice in the river 



