Robert Chambers.

'You are not so versed in the ways of this class of person as I am,' he
said, smiling; 'but since he has been so injudicious as to give a date,
I think we can put him out of court. I am one of those methodical
individuals who keep a diary.' And on reference to it, he found that I
had read him my story long before that of my traducer, according to his
own account, had left his hands.

It was a small matter, but proved a useful lesson to me, for there is a
great deal of imposture of this kind going on in the literary world;
sometimes, as perhaps in this case, the result of mere egotistic fancy,
but also sometimes begotten by the desire to levy blackmail.

The above, so far as I can remember them, are the circumstances under
which I published my first novel. I am sorry to add that poor
Tickeracandua, to whom it owed so much, subsequently met the very fate
in reality which I had assigned to him in fiction; though as good a
fellow as many I have met _out_ of a show, he came to the same end as
'Don't Care' did in the nursery story, and was 'eaten (or at all events
killed) by lions.'

[Illustration: signed drawing: W. Clark Russell]

'_THE WRECK OF THE "GROSVENOR"_'

BY W. CLARK RUSSELL

[Illustration: CLARK RUSSELL AS A MIDSHIPMAN OF SEVENTEEN]

I am complimented by an invitation to tell what I can recollect of the
writing, publication, and reception of the earliest of my sea books,
'The Wreck of the "Grosvenor."' I approach the subject with diffidence,
and ask the reader to forgive me if he thinks or finds me unduly
egotistical. 'John Holdsworth: Chief Mate,' preceded 'The Wreck of the
"Grosvenor."' I do not regard that story as a novel of the sea. I was
reluctant and timid in dealing with ocean topics when the scheme of that
tale came into my head; I contented myself with pulling off my shoes and
socks and walking about ankle deep into the ripples. But in the
'Grosvenor' I went to sea like a man; I signed articles aboard her as
second mate; I had ruffians for shipmates, and the stench of the
harness-cask was the animating influence of the narrative. It is the
first sea book I ever wrote, in the sense, I mean, that its successors
are sea books: what I have to say, therefore, agreeably to the plan of
these personal contributions, will refer to it.

[Illustration: I WAS A CHILD OF THIRTEEN]

And first, I must write a few words about my own experience as a sailor.
I went to sea in the year