AN APPRECIATION 321 



or Ringlets seems only to have been inspired 

 by the wish to give Leech a chance to draw 

 young ladies. Yet we would not willingly lose 

 Jock Haggish, or Jovey Jessop and his Jug. 

 Some people look upon these books simply 

 as caricatures ; and so in some respects they 

 may be, for it is hard to believe that Surtees 

 wrote always of his contemporaries seriously : 

 instance, the absurd and exaggerated way he 

 dresses many of his characters. Neverthe- 

 less, they contain an undercurrent of what is 

 by no means caricature. There is nothing 

 impossible about Jorrocks, Pigg, Sponge, 

 Leather, Jawleyford, or in fact the bulk of 

 Surtees' characters. In Romford we admit 

 there is exaggeration — not in the fact that 

 such a man should be, but that an English 

 county should receive him. The lesson the 



author meant to inculcate was obvious ; in fact, 

 21 



