viii AN ANGLER'S HOURS 



I cannot plead the urgency of friends 

 for its production. One's friends, every 

 man's friends, are nowadays too busy com- 

 mencing author themselves to be solicitous 

 in the preliminaries of alien publication. 

 With the results it is different. There is 

 much kindly and mutual reading ; there is 

 exchange of candid opinion ; and quite a 

 fortunate number of authors would be 

 justified in stamping John Grolier's ex- 

 cellent motto, et amicorum^ on the binding 

 of their own works. This is all passing 

 pleasant, but it robs me of a possible 

 excuse. 



Nor can I urge any high purpose which 

 might at the first seeing lend dignity to the 

 book and wrap it in some faint mist of 

 necessity. There is practically no purpose 

 and, I hope, no exhortation. Words of 

 counsel may, I am afraid, be met with 

 here and there. But, as a friend about to 

 publish once said to me (and it is surely 



