BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 193 



On the 5th of March, 1838, by the death of his 

 father, Mr. Surtees succeeded to the estate of Ham- 

 sterley Hall and the duties of a country gentleman. 

 He became a J. P. for Durham, a major of the 

 Durham Militia, and was High Sheriff for the county 

 in 1856. He had severed his connection with the 

 New Sporting Magazine, and devoted his literary 

 abilities to fiction. His first novel, however, was 

 a comparative failure. The title was Hillingdon 

 Hall; or. The Cockney Squire, and is probably the 

 least known of any of his novels. But Handley Cross 

 immediately placed him on the highest pinnacle of 

 fame. Whilst man wears leather breeches, and slow 

 old duffers can be found to cast backwards, the 

 author of Jorrocks and Pigg can never die. 



The original of John Jorrocks has never been 

 traced, so far as the novelist is concerned, though 

 John Leech took his original from a coachman whom 

 he sketched in church. Mr. Surtees said of his hero : 

 "Although Mr. Jorrocks is a man of established re- 

 putation, we trust the reader in perusing his freaks 

 will not be betrayed into a ' swell mob ' sneer at the 

 author for depicting the exploits of a jolly, free-and- 

 easy, fox-hunting grocer. We admit that Mr, Jorrocks 

 is ' wulgar,' but we would ask the reader to bear in 

 mind the distinction between describing vulgar people 

 and describing vulgar people vulgarly. Mr. Jorrocks, 

 at all events, has one recommendation — he does not 

 pretend to be anything but what he is." That 

 Handley Cross was and is vulgar and occasionally 

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