126 HUNTING THE FOX 



the Belvoir Hunt, by Mr. T. F. Dale ; and The Fox- 

 hounds of Great Britain and Ireland, by Sir Humphry 

 de Trafford and his collaborators. 



Among the writers of the Fiction of Fox-hunting, 

 Surtees must surely be given the palm. He not 

 only thoroughly understood the sport itself, but 

 has also painted with his pen a gallery of portraits 

 which, among a large class of readers, will outlive 

 many of the characters of the novelists of the 

 nineteenth century. It is no impertinence to say 

 that these pen-portraits would have survived even 

 had there been no Leech to make their immortality 

 doubly sure. But what a collaboration ! The 

 alliance between Gilbert and Sullivan is the only 

 alliance in the world of art to which it can be 

 compared. Leech knew his subjects as intimately 

 as did Surtees. Thackeray's paper on Leech's 

 pictures of Life and Character tells us something of 

 the secret of his fame. " The truth, the strength, 

 the free vigour, the kind humour, the John Bull 

 pluck and spirit of that hand are approached by 

 no competitor. With what dexterity he draws a 

 horse, a woman, a child ! . . . Any one who looks 

 over Mr. Leech's portfolio must see that the social 

 pictures which he gives us are authentic . . . the 

 inner life of all these people (the English) is repre- 

 sented. Leech draws them as naturally as Teniers 

 depicts Dutch boors, or Morland pigs and stables. 

 , . . Mr. Leech has as fine an eye for tailoring and 



