Major Wliyte Melville. 269 



readers as the novel, the very title of which slie herself 

 was ignorant of up to that moment. To have heard 

 from the learned authoress of the ^^ Queens of England ^' 

 that she knew nothing- of a book bearing the title of 

 " Tilbury Nogo " would not have surprised any one ; but 

 that the fame of " Holmby House " should not have 

 reached her ears argued on her part but little know- 

 ledge of what was going on in the world of light litera- 

 ture. The first-mentioned work — his earliest venture — at 

 once gained for Whyte Melv^ille a foothold on the plat- 

 form of sporting novelists ; but the reading public was 

 scarcely prepared for the advance to be met with in the 

 pages of ^^ Holmby House " — a work that has taken its 

 place with the most popular historical romances in the 

 language. " Digby Grand ^' and " General Bounce " 

 confirmed the impression that in Whyte Melville^ a 

 writer of no ordinary ability had appeared upon the 

 literary horizon — a rival, in his power of description and 

 his treatment of character, to the author of the great 

 '^ Jorrocks '"' himself. While some of his novels fell short 

 of the reputation he had so rapidly gained, **" The Gladi- 

 ators,^' " The Interpreter," and ^' Katerfelto '^ raised him 

 to a level attained by very few of the writers of the 

 day, and caused his publications to be eagerly sought 

 for. That he was in any way really a rival of the 

 author of the inimitable '^ Jorrocks '* and ^^ Soapey 

 Sponge,'^ cannot be asserted by any one conversant with 

 the styles of the respective authors. The one indulges 

 in broad farce — non-natural situations — and is always 

 treading outside the line of things as they are; the 

 other deals only with human nature in its more refined 

 phase — portrays character in its garment of every-day 



