In point of fact, Crowe is by no means the equal of the first two of these.

And yet, with his heart in the right place, and his application of sea terms to land objects, Captain Samuel Crowe has a good deal of the rough charm of his prototypes.

Still more distinct, and among Smollett's personages a more novel figure, is the Captain's nephew, the dapper, verbose, tender-hearted lawyer, Tom Clarke.

Apart from the inevitable Smollett exaggeration, a better portrait of a softish young attorney could hardly be painted.

Nor, in enumerating the characters of Sir Launcelot Greaves who fix themselves in a reader's memory, should Tom's inamorata, Dolly, be forgotten, or the malicious Ferret, or that precious pair, Justice and Mrs.Gobble, or the Knight's squire, Timothy Crabshaw, or that very individual horse, Gilbert, whose lot is to be one moment caressed, and the next, cursed for a "hard-hearted, unchristian tuoad." Barring the Gobbles, all these characters are important in the book from first to last.