to
supply a book to my old friend Mr. Shaylor, to be published by Simpkin,
Marshall & Co. It was to contain just what had been left over by
_Bell's Life_, the _Field_, and various magazines, and this I have
described as the "Aftermath." I therefore publish it, and I do so, if
I may be permitted, just as an old man's indulgence. Will the reader
be so good as to let it stand at that, and will my old friends accept a
humble plea for that indulgence? I make it very sincerely, and with a
grateful heart for long years of brotherhood and kindly comradeship.

There are obligations which must, however, be clearly and promptly
acknowledged with thanks most cordial: to the proprietors of the
_Field_, (now the Field Press, Limited), to _Baily's Magazine_, the
_Windsor Magazine_, and many others who kindly gave permission to
select what was required for my purpose. I hereby thank them one and
all, with apologies to others not mentioned through inadvertence.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WILLIAM SENIOR

MY DEAR RED SPINNER,

Only the other day I found in a bookseller's catalogue your _Waterside
Sketches_ with the word "scarce" against it. I already possess three
copies, one the gift of the author, but I very nearly wrote off for a
fourth because one cannot have too much of so good a thing. What
restrained me really was honest altruism. "Hold," I said to myself,
"there must be some worthy man who has no copy at all. Let him have a
chance." For it is a melancholy fact that Red Spinner's books have
been out of print an unconscionable while, only to be obtained in the
second-hand market, and even there with difficulty.

I am not surprised at this (failing new editions at rather frequent
intervals), but as a friend of man, and especially of man the angler, I
am sorry. I believe I have read almost everything that has been
written on the subject of fishing which comes within ordinary scope,
and a certain amount which is outside that scope, and I have amassed
fishing books to the number of several hundred. There is, however,
comparatively little of all this considerable literature that I keep on
a special shelf for reading and re-reading, a couple of dozen volumes
maybe--and a quarter of those Red Spinner's. Realising what a pleasure
and refreshment these books are to me and how often one or other of
them companions the evening tobacco, I can the better appreciate the
loss occasioned to other anglers by their gradual removal