Lines in Pleasant Places | Page 3

is necessary to mention this to
account for the fact that the majority of what I write has appeared
before the public from year to year. Indeed, I did not allow the grass to
grow under my feet. My voyage to Queensland gave me a book, and a
series of the Gentleman's Magazine chapters gave me another; and so it
went on from time to time, as I had the opportunity, in magazines and
papers, finding what I may call even a ready market for all I chose to
publish. The reader will understand, therefore, that after these
half-dozen books, if any of them are to be found registered against me,
there was not a great deal left for gathering together; and that is the
excuse for this volume which I have ventured to call the Aftermath of
Red Spinner. Indeed, just before the war broke out I had agreed 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 from the lists of
the obtainable.
But not very long ago I heard the good news that you had another
volume on the stocks, and I felt that the situation was improving. And
now I have had the privilege of actually reading that volume in the
proof sheets and can report the glad tidings for the benefit of my
brethren of the angle. At last they will be able to procure one of your
books by the simple process of entering a bookseller's and asking for it.
I do not propose here to say much about the new volume except that it
will certainly stand beside Waterside Sketches on that special shelf and
that it will take its turn with the others in the regular sequence of
re-reading. It is the real article, what I may call "genuine Red Spinner,"
hallmark and all. I must express my satisfaction that you have given in
it some further record of the angling in other lands which you have
enjoyed in your much-travelled experience. The Antipodes, Canada, the
United States, Norway, Belgium before the tragedy--you make it all
just as vivid to us as those cold spring days on the rolling Tay, the
glowing time of lilac and Mayfly, or the serene evenings when the
roach float dips sweetly at every swim. Whatever one's