58 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



in many years gone by, and that nearly eight 

 years have come and gone since my last visit 

 to its pleasant banks, it did give me a thrill of 

 pleasure to find myself once more on the Itchen, 

 albeit on a stretch of it I had never seen before ; 

 my former visits being mostly limited to one 

 locality. 



To recall past pleasures would only be to 

 revive old memories of those who helped to 

 make those pleasures, many of whom have 

 long since passed away, whilst I might almost 

 say that 



" I have lived to be 

 The last leaf upon the tree." 



It is not my intention to recall the names of 

 those old friends. More than a generation has 

 passed away since I first contributed the results 

 of my angling doings to the Fishing Gazette ', 

 a self-imposed duty which I have rarely omitted 

 to give of all my little excursions ever since. 

 A new generation, then unborn, has arisen 

 and become ardent anglers. They know not 

 Joseph, but 



" Let them smile, as I do now, 

 At the old forsaken bough 

 Where I cling." 



