TO
W. H. MUDFORD, Esq.
My dear Mudford,—Although the days of patrons and of epistles dedicatory have passed away, it is still permissible to inscribe the name of a friend on the fly-leaf of a book. I venture, therefore, to associate your name with this trifling record of a pleasant holiday trip. I do so not because you were in a certain sense connected with part of my experiences in Tunis, nor even because in common with all who have any knowledge of the Press I recognize and rejoice in the great position you have gained in English Journalism; but because I wish to keep alive the memory of times long past, when you and I were bound together by the ties of an intimacy that was personal as well as professional, and that did not a little to cheer and strengthen me in a dark crisis of my life.
“Able editors,” though they are by no means common in this world, may still by a happy chance be met with at any period of one’s existence; but after a man has reached a certain age, if he does not cease to make friends he at least discovers that he cannot afford to part with any of those whom he made whilst he was still young. It is therefore rather to my old friend, than to the journalist who has done much to revive the best traditions of the English Press, that I ask leave to dedicate this simple story; and whilst I do so, may I add the expression of a hope that many years of usefulness and honour still lie before you?
Yours always,
T. Wemyss Reid.
Leeds, Feb. 20th, 1882.
INTRODUCTION.
