THE WRITINGS OF DOUGLAS JERROLD. COLLECTED EDITION. VOLUME V. PUNCH'S LETTERS TO HIS SON. PUNCH'S COMPLETE LETTER WRITER. AND SKETCHES OF THE ENGLISH. PUNCH'S LETTERS TO HIS SON, PUNCH'S COMPLETE LETTER WRITER, AND SKETCHES OF THE ENGLISH. BY DOUGLAS JERROLD. LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET. 1853. 249. u. 490. PREFACE. IT may be charged against these LETTERS that they are not written in milk upon rose-leaves. The charge is undeniably true. The LETTER-WRITER, with all decent meekness, pleads guilty to it. A porcupine-even an infant porcupine, with its quills in the down-is not a lamb; a snow-white lamb, cropping trefoil and wild thyme, and now and then taking a jocund gambol, no doubt to promote its digestion. But for this do we blame the porcupine ? Do we call it a monster, simply because its quills are not wool? No: it was created a porcupine, and the point to be considered is this.-Is it a poor porcupine, a porcupine of average merits, or in all things a most exemplary porcupine ? "But," it may be retorted, "what is a porcupine, at the very best? Whereas a lambkin". The cause of preference is at once foreseen and acknowledged. Lamb is so eatable-so delicious, whether cooked for "Arabian Nights" entertainments, with pistachio-nuts, or served with mint and vinegar in British dining-rooms. The truth of this is undeniable. But-with all delights granted in lamb-did the reader ever eat a porcupine, a young porcupine ?—for an old one is not recommended for table trial, even though he should, in his own person, supply toothpicks as well as meat.-But a young porcupine ? We have it on the authority of M. Charlevoix, who passed many years, their honoured guest, with the North American |