In writing this book I have, with permissions, made use of papers that I had the honour of contributing to "The Times" "The Cornhill Magazine" " The Pall Mall Gazette"" The Monthly Review" " The Fishing Gazette" " The County Gentleman" and " The Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette" I trust, however, that the volume will not be regarded as being a compilation of writings already published. It is not so. The book is not produced merely because the papers had been written. The papers were written as a preliminary sketch of the book. Excepting in the case of the contribution to "Cornhill" "The Otters Stone Pool;' only portions of them have been used, and the portions have been recast and developed. Besides, these, although the acknowledgments make them seem a good many, constitute only a very small part of this volume. That is to say, this is afresh work.