128 HUNTING THE FOX 



many other characters. The account of Mr. 

 Sponge's visit to Jawleyford Court cannot be 

 beaten. It is a delightful piece of burlesque, in 

 half-a-dozen chapters, of this pretentious Jawley- 

 ford with his spurious hospitality, his cheap cellar, 

 his third-rate art gallery, his weakness for a lord, 

 his ostentatious reception of his tenantry, his 

 family pride, his love of display, — in fact all the 

 attributes that make a really vulgar snob of a man 

 who ought to have been a gentleman. All this, 

 together with the interior economy of Jawleyford 

 Court, is depicted by the hand of a master whose 

 power of penetrating character and skill in delineat- 

 ing it is surely of the very first order. The great 

 merit of his picture of Jawleyford is that, with the 

 exception of the extravagance in making him ride 

 to the Meet of the Hounds in the uniform of the 

 Bumperkin Yeomanry, it is not really overdone. 

 Less subtle, but none the less historical, are the 

 portraits of Lord Scamperdale, Jack Spraggon, 

 Mr. Puffington, and Mr. Sponge himself. Ask 

 Mamma is not so widely read as Mr. Spongers 

 Sporting Tour, but is well worth reading, if only 

 for the Pringle correspondence and the portrait of 

 " that gallant old philanthropist, the Earl of 

 Ladythorne, of Tantivy Castle, Featherbedford- 

 shire, and Belvedere House, London." The letters 

 from Mrs. Pringle, who, as Miss Willing the lady's 

 maid had been the friend, and as the widow Pringle 



