IV PREFACE. 



secutively run to some extent in the same groove, the 

 observations on the nomenclature of our fish, their natural 

 history, and their gastronomic merits and demerits, taking 

 up a far larger space than the remarks bearing on their 

 capture. This little volume is really an unambitious one, 

 as I wish its title to imply. I might almost call it a simple 

 selection of "Notes" from my commonplace book on 

 angling, and from the enormous mass of piscine and pis- 

 catorial memoranda and extracts which have gradually 

 accumulated round me ; or a collection of " chit-chat " and 

 " gossip " for anglers ; or, once again, a mere farrago — 

 or a "hodge-podge" — of more or less disjointed remarks on 

 Fish and Fishing, the result of many years of observation, 

 reading, and experience in reference to the " gentle art/ 

 If I may venture to say that my book has a special 

 feature, that feature consists in the first four " Notes/ 5 

 the second of which, on the " Literature of Fishing," deals 

 more fully with a subject than I believe it has been dealt 

 with before. Another feature is the introduction of a 

 large number of quotations from and references to other 

 authors, ancient and modern. I had an idea that such 

 quotations and references might be both interesting and 

 useful to many of my readers. Let me add, that if in any 

 case I have quoted the words of an author without dis- 

 tinctly acknowledging my indebtedness, I trust the fact 

 may be put down to inadvertence rather than design. 



But if this be all I have to say on behalf of my book, it 

 may be asked, "What, then, is its raison d'etre?" and 

 " Why add another volume to the already heavily-laden 

 shelves of angling literature V I can only answer that 

 it pleased me to write it, and an eminent firm of pub- 

 lishers, whose house stands, appropriately enough in this 



