INTRODUCTION 



to English 



is a great misfortune 

 literature that the pencil of John 

 Leech never lent its aid to the pen 

 of Whyte-Melville, an alliance of 

 author and artist as natural as the 

 memorable one between Boz and 

 ' Phiz. They were contemporary : 

 each excelled in the delineation of the 

 chase : each delighted in portraying the 

 most charming phases of young womanhood and 

 the graces and foibles of young men. It is 

 doubtful whether John Jorrocks and the rest of 

 Surtees' inimitable gallery would ever have 

 become the very household gods of the hunting- 

 box had Leech not been enlisted to enliven the 

 chronicle by his art. But Whyte-Melville was 

 a careless author ; he cared little, that is, for the 

 form in which his books were published. Writing 

 for his own amusement and that of his friends, 

 he devoted all the proceeds of his labour to 

 philanthropic and charitable ends, especially to 

 the establishment and maintenance of reading- 

 rooms and other means of recreation for grooms 



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