3o8 ROBERT S. SURTEES 



denied that there was any prototype. If 

 this is so, it cannot be denied that Surtees 

 achieved that in which so many writers fail, 

 and brought before his readers a living 

 reality, and possibly a more vivid one than 

 Thackeray ever drew, or even Dickens. 

 Of Jorrocks it may be said that w^e know all 

 about him, and can even foresee how he 

 will act on any particular occasion. His 

 honesty, hard-working habits, and thrift are 

 blended most perfectly with his love of the 

 bottle, devotion to hunting, and, it must be 

 added, to the fair sex. In depicting his 

 hero's knowledge of mankind Surtees fairly 

 let himself go, and wrote what he himself 

 felt, though he conceals it often under such 

 semi-honest actions of old John's as sticking 

 a horse into a friend at double the price he 

 had just paid for him, or showing himself 



