MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 



sequels of Scheherazade. He was a man of 

 quaint imagination and humour ; indeed all the 

 family have been noted for originality of charac- 

 ter ; all were interestingly peculiar, and each in 

 a different way. 



Such was the author of this little book, his 

 only literary venture ; hardly, indeed, a literary 

 work, but the results of a ripe experience noted 

 down without affectation or ambition of style or 

 system. It appealed of course only to the few ; 

 but forty years more have amply ratified the 

 teaching he founded on forty years' practice. 

 Since his time there have been great changes, 

 both in the opportunities for angling and the 

 methods ; and yet Time is bringing about its 

 revenges. The lake that he loved became 

 gradually depopulated of fish they say, owing 

 to turbid or poisonous matter washed into it by 

 the stream from the copper-mines. Now at 

 last the copper-mines have almost ceased work- 

 ing, and the waters of Coniston Lake have 

 become pure again. An Angling Association 

 has been formed, and is working with energy to 

 re-stock the lake and the tarns in its neighbour- 

 hood with trout, and the famous native char, 

 re-imported from Windermere, or bred in their 

 pond near Coniston Hall. And as the Fishery 

 Conservators are taking similar steps in all the 



