Fabulous 6 Leather Bound Volumes By The Great Sporting Author R. S. Surtees. William Morris Considered Him "A Master of Life" Ranked With Charles Dickens By Thackeray, Kipling, Arnold Bennett, Siegfried Sassoon & President Theodore Roosevelt

Hand Coloured Plates By Leech & H.K.Browne {aka Phiz}.
Dickens novel 'The Pickwick Papers', was originally intended as mere supporting matter for a series of sporting illustrations to rival Surtees iconic hunting character, Mr Jorrocks.

A fabulous set of six wonderful Victorian comedic and satirical volumes of the ever popular and iconic, British, Sporting & Country life pursuits. Absolutely perfect for those that enjoy such passions as much today as was prevalent in the 19th century.

One of our most popular purchases from The Lanes Armoury, for gifting at Christmas, will always be our finest novels, by iconic authors. An heirloom for generations to come, that combines to be a fabulous read as well as an antiquarian joy of considerable beauty.

A simply fabulous and beautiful, finely, full leather bound set of 6, with stunning gilt embellishments, panelled spines, and each volume brimming with fabulous engravings by Leech or 'Phiz', and wonderfully hand coloured

Surtees,R.S - Sporting Novels, subscriber's edition, full leather deluxe binding in red calf, 6 vols. hand coloured title vignettes and num. hand coloured plates (by John Leech & H.K. Browne, aka. Phiz); contemp. gilt pictorial, decorated and ruled red calf, panelled spine.

Ask Mama {or the Richest Commoner in England.},
Plain or Ringlets,
Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds,
Hawbuck Grange,
Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour,
Handley Cross {or Mr Jorrock's Hunt}.

Printed during the reign of Queen Victoria for Subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co. Bouverie St. London.

His work lacked the self-conscious idealism, sentimentality and moralism of the Victorian era; the historian Norman Gash asserted that "His leading male characters were coarse or shady; his leading ladies dashing and far from virtuous; his outlook on society satiric to the point of cynicism."

Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 1805 – 16 March 1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer, widely known as R. S. Surtees. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall, a member of an old County Durham family. He is remembered for his invented character of Jorrocks, a vulgar but good-natured sporting cockney grocer.


Surtees attended a school at Ovingham and then Durham School, before being articled in 1822 to Robert Purvis, a solicitor in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Surtees left for London in 1825, intending to practise law in the capital, but had difficulty making his way and began contributing to the Sporting Magazine. He launched out on his own with the New Sporting Magazine in 1831, contributing the comic papers which appeared as Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities in 1838. Jorrocks, the sporting cockney grocer, with his vulgarity and good-natured artfulness, was a great success with the public, and Surtees produced more Jorrocks novels in the same vein, notably Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall, where the description of the house is very reminiscent of Hamsterley. Another hero, Soapey Sponge, appears in Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour, possibly Surtees's best work. All Surtees's novels were composed at Hamsterley Hall, where he wrote standing up at a desk, like Victor Hugo.

In 1835, Surtees abandoned his legal practice and, after inheriting Hamsterley Hall in 1838, devoted himself to hunting and shooting, meanwhile writing anonymously for his own pleasure. He was a friend and admirer of the great hunting man Ralph Lambton, who had his headquarters at Sedgefield, County Durham, the "Melton of the North". Surtees became Lord High Sheriff of Durham in 1856. He died in Brighton in 1864, and was buried in Ebchester church.

Though Surtees did not set his novels in any readily identifiable locality, he uses North East place-names like Sheepwash, Howell (How) Burn, and Winford Rig. His memorable Geordie James Pigg, in Handley Cross, is based on Joe Kirk, a Slaley huntsman. The famous incident, illustrated by Leech, when Pigg jumps into the melon frame was inspired by a similar episode involving Kirk in Corbridge.

As a creator of comic personalities, Surtees is still readable today. William Makepeace Thackeray envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris considered him "a master of life" and ranked him with Charles Dickens. The novels are engaging and vigorous, and abound with sharp social observation, with a keener eye than Dickens for the natural world. Perhaps Surtees most resembles the Dickens of The Pickwick Papers, which was originally intended as mere supporting matter for a series of sporting illustrations to rival Jorrocks.

Most of Surtees's later novels, were illustrated by John Leech. They included Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour (1853), Ask Mamma (1858), Plain or Ringlets? (1860) and Mr Facey Romford's Hounds (1865). The last of these novels appeared posthumously.

His sharp, authentic descriptions of the hunting field have retained their popularity among fox-hunters.... Among a wider public his mordant observations on men, women, and manners; his entertaining array of eccentrics, rakes, and rogues; his skill in the construction of lively dialogue (a matter over which he took great pains); his happy genius for unforgettable and quotable phrases; and above all, his supreme comic masterpiece, Jorrocks, have won him successive generations of devoted followers. Although his proper place among Victorian novelists is not easy to determine, his power as a creative artist was recognized, among professional writers, by Thackeray, Kipling, Arnold Bennett, and Siegfried Sassoon, and earned the tributes of laymen as distinguished and diverse as William Morris, Lord Rosebery, and Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1841, Surtees married Elizabeth Jane Fenwick (1818–1879), daughter of Addison Fenwick of Bishopwearmouth, by whom he had one son Anthony (1847–1871) and two daughters. His younger daughter Eleanor married John Vereker, afterwards 5th Viscount Gort. Their son was Field Marshal Lord Gort, commander of the BEF in France in 1940.

Code: 25970