NEAR AND FAR: AN ANGLER'S SKETCHES OF HOME SPORT AND COLONIAL LIFE

1st Edition, 1888; Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London. 12mo., (125 x 193mm), ppxv, 304 [32]. Pictorial cloth boars of horsemen at coast; silver titles to front and gilt to spine.

A rare first edition in two parts. The first, "Sketches of Home Sport," relates a year of sport with the rod in Britain, chiefly in pursuit of trout and pike. The second, "Sketches of Colonial Life," is all about Australia; sea-angling, hunting for kangaroo, 'possum, wild horses, dugong and wildfowl.

William Senior (1838-1920), was a British angler, author and editor. He was an angling writer for The Field - the world’s oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853 - and later Editor (1900-1910). Under his nom de plume. ‘Red Spinner’, he was at the forefront of fishing advances and experimentation, primarily dry fly-fishing, although it was F. M. Halford - a Field contributor - who developed the dry fly ethos. In 1876 he was appointed Principal Shorthand Writer at the Queensland Hansard in Australia and was chief reporter there until 1881. He also contributed articles on angling and other topics to the Queenslander and other fishing journals and magazines under his nom de plume. His works include: Notable Shipwrecks (1873), Waterside Sketches: A Book For Wanderers and Anglers (1875), Travel and Trout in the Antipodes: An Angler’s Sketches in Tasmania and New Zealand (1880), Scotch Loch-Fishing (1883), Near and Far: An Anglers Sketches of Home Sport and Colonial Life (1890), A Mixed Bag: A Medley of Angling Stories and Sketches (1895), The Sea Fisher in Foreign Parts (1895), Pike and Perch (1900) and Lines in Pleasant Places: Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler (1920).

Condition: Chips and tears to spine tips; corners bumped and slightly worn. Otherwise good to very good.