Dear H. T. S.,
It is a commonplace that there are too many books on angling.
My instinct, therefore, is to follow the established custom of authors who write on that subject, and hypocritically to apologise for what I have done.
But gratitude compels me to dedicate the Angler at Large to you, the man the most truly, though perhaps not the most conspicuously, responsible for its appearance. For lacking your encouragements (of which this book is the most direct fruit), very possibly I had been still floundering clueless in the labyrinth of Conveyancing Law, and employing my pen upon the infinitely discreditable labour of storing up trouble for the harmless unborn children of inoffensive clients. You have done more than any twenty men (though less than one woman) to save me from this misery and infamy, and I hold myself bound publicly to testify my obligation.
You are, then, the natural dedicatee of this book.
But if I follow the custom which I have mentioned—if, that is to say, I apologise for adding to
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