'Surely rather a striking tribute'

I've been reading Wodehouse at bedtime – actually dipping into this volume – and this morning, browsing on Facebook, I came across a Wodehouse anecdote. It seems that someone signing themselves 'Indignant' wrote a letter to the press attacking Wodehouse for being a vastly overrated writer. In his 1957 collection Over Seventy, Wodehouse responded to 'Indignant' by drawing his attention to a letter in the Times from a Mr Verrier Elwin of Patangarth, India, telling how a cow wandered into his home and, after due consideration, ate a copy of Carry On, Jeeves, selected from a shelf containing works by John Galsworthy, Jane Austen and T.S. Eliot. 'Surely rather a striking tribute,' Wodehouse remarks.