Autograph Letter Signed

The 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon was a liberal British statesman, member of Parliament, the longest-serving Foreign Secretary (1905-16), in which capacity he stated as the Germans invaded Belgium that "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime"; later British Ambassador to the United States (1919-20). Meaty ALS, 6pp (4pp lettersheet + separate single leaf), 4½" X 7", Chathill, England, 17 January 1899. Addressed to "My dear Dewar" (editor George A.B. Dewar). Very good. Two faint horizontal folds; old non-staining tape traces at margin of 4th and 5th pages. On imprinted estate letterhead, Grey boldly pens in his large and legible hand detailed thoughts about his upcoming book titled "Fly Fishing," published by J.M. Dent & Co. in London later that same year and reprinted several times. "I am very glad that you like the Mss. for it is most difficult to form any opinion of one's writing & I have great confidence in your judgement," he writes. "I am sending a few more photographs of Shetland, but I hope you will be able to let me have them again as they are borrowed from a friend...." Mentions fishing legend William Hardy ("I got a note from Hardy on Saturday & as I happened to be in Alnwick that day I went to see him") and all manner of advice concerning dry flies, etc. "There might be a note at the beginning of the book to say that some passages are reprinted either literally or with alterations from an article, which I wrote for the New Review in 1893. I wrote about this to A. Grove, who was then Editor & at whose request the article was written, and he consents. Some small things keep occurring to me, which ought I think be added with advantage in one or two of the Chapters. Can this be done easily after the book is in type; or ought I to make a first to do it at once? I might for instance say something more about striking. It is difficult to be sure how one does it, but I dont do it with a turn of the wrist. It seems to me a quick movement of the forearm & the difficulty is to get the maximum of rapidity with the minimum of violence, and in dry fly fishing to adjust the force of the movement to the amount of slack line, which must vary a little according to the nature of the cast and the position of the fish...." Fascinating to any fly fisherman.