xiv THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



turns out that the publishers had more sagacity than 

 either this critic or myself. In the autumn of last 

 year they wrote saying that the 'work had been in such 

 demand that a new edition would be needed in the 

 spring. Who can confidently deny that a book so suc- 

 cessful Jifty years after itsjirst publication is probably 

 " among the little classics " ? At any rate, here it is 

 again, in a fresh printing ; and I suspect that any 

 author of this day who knew for certain that his book 

 would be reissued half a century hence would regard 

 himself, and that with reason, as being at least com- 

 paratively a classic. In the Introduction there are 

 indicated the considerations on which I thought that 

 " The Practical Angler,'" though I did not expect such 

 gratifying success for it, deserved to have a new 

 vogue; but, as one cannot be sure that one's own 

 reasons for admiring a book are those for which it is 

 favoured by the public, perhaps I had better, by way 

 of drawing attention to this new issue, chronicle the 

 remarkable heartiness with which the 1905 edition was 

 welcomed by certain representative men of learning 

 who are also sportsmen. 



In a charming essay published by " Macmillan's 

 Magazine," Mr. A. G. Bradley wrote: 



" For my own part, when the book fell open at some 

 beautifully reproduced illustrations from Stewart's old 

 patterns, of spiders black and red, grouse and wood- 

 cock, time and space were annihilated. I seemed to 

 feel once more the waters of the Whitadder gurgling 

 about my feet, and to hear the Cheviot sheep bleating 

 on the hills around St. Bathans, and the grouse and 



