t time, nor of practising it. Somehow I was always being
reminded that the fishing rod was to obtain the mastery by and by, but
I had to wait a long while for the opportunity. At first I was in what
may be called a good fishing country, but I seemed to have no say in
it. I had no rod; no fisheries were open. Indeed, it was journalism
that gripped me, and in those early days I followed the mastership of
it very closely, for there was so much to learn, as I shall be able, I
hope, to explain when any reminiscences that I am able to write call
for it. That longing must meanwhile be kept open for some years to
come.

Now, however, came the time when, as I have always considered, my real
life began. It was my fate to be appointed representative of the
_Lymington Chronicle_ in 1858, when I was duly installed in its office
in that town, engaged to look after the local news, the advertisements,
the circulation; and especially it was my business to see that not a
single paragraph was ever missing from the budget which I duly sent to
the head office in Poole at the end of every week. But still there was
no fishing, save in the river, where bass came occasionally to my hook
in the tidal portions; and one of six pounds I remember as the best
that came to me on the hand line. There was some talk once of a visit
that I was to pay to a trout river at Brockenhurst; but practically
nothing came of it, nor did a casual chance which Lord Palmerston gave
me at Broadlands, which was too far from my beat and altogether above
me in its salmon runs. As for perch, which I had fished for as a boy,
there were none to be heard of in the district.

In due time I was transferred from Lymington to Southampton, where I
remember catching smelts, and nice little baskets of them, from the
pier at the bottom of High Street. Next I went to Manchester, where
there was less of such fishing as I required than before; and on a
daily paper like the _Guardian_, journalism soon proved to be real
business to engage my attention, and left me without the slight
opportunities I found even with the _Lymington Chronicle_ or _Hants
Independent_. In due time fortune, as I thought, beamed upon me when I
got an appointment on the London _Daily News_, which was then in its
prime. Here I began to find what fishing meant, for very early, thanks
to the kindness of Moy Thomas and his friend Miles, the publisher, who
was one of the directors, I got a ticket for the f