Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/255

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��express their opinion as to the scheme indicated, and to forward any suggestions." To this invitation there was a ready response, and, with but four exceptions, the communications were couched in language of warm commendation.

In 1857 Mr. John Henry Walsh took the editorial control ; he was an all-round sportsman, and in the previous year had pub- lished under the name of " Stonehenge " ' British Rural Sports.' He is described in the article on the Jubilee as being a " heaven- born " editor, a man in a thousand for the position to which he was appointed. This was his first connexion with newspaper work. Born in 1810, he had practised as a doctor in Worcestershire for twenty-five years, but he had a great liking for sport, and indulged in it as far as his professional engagements permitted. The Field had at first paid httle attention to angling, but in 1856 Francis Francis came upon the scene, and he and James Lowe, Frank Buckland both members of the Field brotherhood and others, were successful in working out problems of fish culture, and now angling forms an important feature of the contents. Angling, in common with all sports, has largely increased of late years so much so that it now supports a paper of its own, The Fishing Gazette. In this the contents of Mr. Edward Marston's delightful little holiday books first appeared. His son, Mr. R. B. Marston, is both proprietor and editor. To this paper we owe the Izaak Walton memorial in Winchester Cathedral, as well as that in St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, this being a stained-glass window. There is also a marble slab in the porch.

Among other early contributors to The Field were the Hon. Grantley Berkeley and Du Chaillu. The trophies of the latter, when exhibited in the old office in the Strand, at the corner of Wellington Street, now occupied by The Morning Post, created remarkable interest. At a more recent date the late Henry Jones (" Cavendish ") represented whist ; Steinitz, the greatest of chess masters, chess ; and the late Mr. Dixon Kemp, yachting. Mr. F. Toms succeeded Mr. Walsh as editor. He is described as " a walking encyclopaedia, and one of the most unassuming of men."

It was John Crockford who purchased the paper for Mr. Cox. He obtained it from Benjamin Webster for a trifling sum, and it proved a very remunerative investment. In a short time the net profits amounted to 20,000?. a year. The management was placed under Crockford's control. He was a splendid man of business, and in 1859 founded the ' Clerical Directory ' which bears his name. In his career he had but one failure. He tried to establish a literary paper, The Critic. To this he brought all his great ability, but after fifteen years he gave it up in despair. I had occasion to call upon him a short time before his death, when we joined in a hearty laugh over his former furious attacks on The Athenceum. " Dilke's Drag " he used to call it, and would

��John Henry

Walsh takes

editorial

control.

��Francis Francis.

��The Fishing Gazette : Edward Marston.

R. B. Marston.

��1903, Jan. 31.

The Fielif i

early contributors.

��John Crockford.

��The Critic

and The

Athenceum.

�� �