2 PREFACE. 



innocent pleasures. It is often to the wearied 

 City man that the river calls most audibly. If 

 once the spirit of the stream can gain his ear 

 for a quiet hour in Spring or early Summer she 

 will whisper a tale of future delights which can 

 soothe the troubles of a twelvemonth. She can 

 tell him more of ease and contentment in a few 

 flashing moments as be lays his head back 

 among the young bracken and closes his eyes 

 than the wealth of the Stock Exchange can ever 

 promise or perform in a life time. The tinkling 

 of even the tiniest stream strikes a responsive 

 chord the harmony of which sets a thousand 

 pleasant memories vibrating, which displace for 

 the time being all harassing thoughts and 

 worrying topics. To the barrister talking in 

 carbonised courts, to the stock dealer yelling in 

 the heated House or to the ordinary business 

 clerk jaded by eleven months of long hours, 

 long wrangles with his fellows or still longer 

 wrestling with recalcitrant columns of figures, a 

 holiday spent in fishing comes as a holy 

 pleasure. If he does not feel this then he has 

 not been worked to within a dangerous limit of 

 breaking point. 



That awful law in London which makes life 

 so galling is absent from angling. Thank 

 heaven, on the river bank Competition is 

 unknown. One has heard of a * fishing com- 

 petition ' but like a nightmare it need not be 

 referred to. The real charm, the real rest cure 

 of fishing lies in its comparative solitariness. 

 To be able to say I have not talked for six 



