PREFACE. "dip into" his "GENTLE" READER-or, as probably I may call you, "Brother Angler”—and you, too, gentle or ungentle critic, as the case may be, please take the trouble to run through these few introductory lines. Nothing is more unfair to an author than to read or book before seeing what he has to say about it in his Preface. In this you will often find that he explains the scope and plan (or perhaps absence of plan) of his work, and tells his readers what to expect and what not. Thus, to some extent he is able, by way of anticipation, to protect himself against unfair objections which might be alleged against his performance, and to escape the wrath of some readers who might be disappointed at not finding what they expected to find, and what the author never meant they should find. Let me, then, say a word or two by way of explanation in reference to these "Notes." They are not intended to form a book of methodical instruction for anglers; nor do they pretend to be exhaustive of the subjects treated of. They are written on no very definite plan, though it will be seen that those which deal with the different fish con 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 piscatorial 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.” 66 If I may venture to say that my book has a special feature, that feature consists in the first four "Notes," 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 distinctly acknowledging my indebtedness, I trust the fact may be put down to inadvertence rather than design. 66 But if this be all I have to say on behalf of my book, it may be asked, "What, then, is its raison d'être ?" and Why add another volume to the already heavily-laden shelves of angling literature?" I can only answer that it pleased me to write it, and an eminent firm of publishers, whose house stands, appropriately enough in this |