SHftl 



PREFACE. 



A PREFACE has been so long the customary 

 method of an author introducing himself to 

 his readers, that it has become almost a 

 breach of good manners to obtrude on the 

 public notice without it. Cap in hand, then, 

 his first prefatory remark is, that the Pis- 

 catory collection which follows, was com- 

 menced by him very many years ago, solely 

 for his own amusement, and was so continued, 

 until it became of such magnitude as to awaken 

 a thought that these high-way and by-way 

 gatherings might also prove not altogether 

 unacceptable to the public in general, but 

 more particularly to the gentle brothers of the 

 craft. From boyhood to his present decline 

 in the vale of years, the author has been a 

 practical Angler, as well as a diligent collector 

 of whatever fell in his way that was in any 

 degree connected with his favourite amuse- 

 ment. As a bookseller and publisher, of some 

 little notoriety, it may be supposed that his 

 opportunities of piscatory gleaning have been 

 both numerous and varied ; and if he cannot 



