Robert Smith Surtees
Encyclopedia
Robert Smith Surtees was an English
editor, novelist and sporting writer. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall
, a member of an old County Durham
family.
and then Durham School
, before being articled in 1822 to Robert Purvis, a solicitor in Market Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
.
, 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 Joe Kirk in Corbridge
.
As a creator of comic personalities, Surtees is still very readable today. Thackeray
envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris
considered him 'a master of life' and ranked him with 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 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.
In 1841 Surtees married Elizabeth Jane Fenwick, daughter of Addison Fenwick of Bishopwearmouth
, by whom he had one son 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.
" (based on Lionel Dunsterville
) from Rudyard Kipling
's Stalky & Co.
(1899) has Surtees's Handley Cross by heart and quotes from it repeatedly.
The novels of Surtees are mentioned several times in Siegfried Sassoon
's 1928 autobiographical novel
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
.
Mr. Jorrocks phrase 'my beloved 'earers' often appears in the speech of children in the books of Monica Marsden.
Anthony Blanche, as he prepares Charles Ryder for their dinner outing to Thame
in Brideshead Revisited
, says that they will "imagine ourselves…where? Not on a j-j-jaunt with J-J-Jorrocks anyway. "
"There were Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities; there were Soapy Sponge and Mrs. Asquith's Memoirs and Big Game Shooting in Nigeria, all spread open." From "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf.
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
editor, novelist and sporting writer. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall
Hamsterley Hall
Hamsterley Hall is an 18th century country house at Hamsterley, Rowlands Gill, County Durham, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.The estate at Hamsterley was given, in 1762, by Sir John Swinburne Bt to his younger brother Henry Swinburne...
, a member of an old County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
family.
Early life
Surtees attended a school at OvinghamOvingham
Ovingham is a civil parish and village in the Tyne Valley of south Northumberland, England. It lies on the River Tyne east of Hexham with neighbours Prudhoe, Ovington, Wylam and Stocksfield....
and then Durham School
Durham School
Durham School, headmaster Martin George , is an independent British day and boarding school for boys and girls in Durham....
, before being articled in 1822 to Robert Purvis, a solicitor in Market Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
.
Career
He 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 best work. All Surtees' novels were composed at Hamsterley HallHamsterley Hall
Hamsterley Hall is an 18th century country house at Hamsterley, Rowlands Gill, County Durham, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.The estate at Hamsterley was given, in 1762, by Sir John Swinburne Bt to his younger brother Henry Swinburne...
, 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
Sedgefield
Sedgefield is a small town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It has a population of 4,534.Sedgefield has attracted particular attention as the Member of Parliament for the wider Sedgefield constituency was the former Prime Minister Tony Blair; he was the area's MP from 1983 to 2008,...
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
Ebchester
Ebchester is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the north of Consett and to the south east of Whittonstall.The parish church, which is dedicated to St. Ebba is of ambiguous origin, being of partly Norman construction with a foundation, described as being pre-Conquest...
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
Geordie
Geordie is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants...
, 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 Joe Kirk in Corbridge
Corbridge
Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, situated west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages in the vicinity include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe.-Roman fort and town:...
.
As a creator of comic personalities, Surtees is still very readable today. Thackeray
Thackeray
Thackeray is the name of:*William Makepeace Thackeray, a novelist*Bal Thackeray, an Indian politician*Edward Talbot Thackeray, a recipient of the Victoria Cross*A David Thackeray, a South African astronomer...
envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
considered him 'a master of life' and ranked him with 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 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.
In 1841 Surtees married Elizabeth Jane Fenwick, daughter of Addison Fenwick of Bishopwearmouth
Bishopwearmouth
Bishopwearmouth is an area in Sunderland, North East England.Bishopwearmouth was one of the original three settlements on the banks of the river Wear that merged to form modern Sunderland....
, by whom he had one son and two daughters. His younger daughter Eleanor married John Vereker, afterwards 5th Viscount Gort. Their son was Field Marshal Lord Gort
John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, MVO, MC , was a British and Anglo-Irish soldier. As a young officer in World War I he won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of the Canal du Nord. During the 1930s he served as Chief of the...
, commander of the BEF
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1940.
Influences on others
The character "StalkyStálky
Stálky is a village and municipality in Znojmo District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 157 ....
" (based on Lionel Dunsterville
Lionel Dunsterville
General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.-Biography:...
) from Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's Stalky & Co.
Stalky & Co.
Stalky & Co. is a book published in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of linked short stories in format, with some information about the charismatic Stalky character in later life. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly...
(1899) has Surtees's Handley Cross by heart and quotes from it repeatedly.
The novels of Surtees are mentioned several times in Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
's 1928 autobiographical novel
Autobiographical novel
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fiction elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction...
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...
.
Mr. Jorrocks phrase 'my beloved 'earers' often appears in the speech of children in the books of Monica Marsden.
Anthony Blanche, as he prepares Charles Ryder for their dinner outing to Thame
Thame
Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town....
in Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
, says that they will "imagine ourselves…where? Not on a j-j-jaunt with J-J-Jorrocks anyway. "
"There were Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities; there were Soapy Sponge and Mrs. Asquith's Memoirs and Big Game Shooting in Nigeria, all spread open." From "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf.
R.S.Surtees Society
The R.S.Surtees Society was founded in 1979 and holds an annual dinner in London. Its stated objectives are:- To promote the works of R.S. Surtees, to maintain his reputation as an author and to stimulate interest in his literary merits.
- To republish the works of R.S. Surtees as and when the Executive Committee considers necessary and is satisfied that demand exists; and to publish or republish any biographical or appreciative material about R.S. Surtees.
- To arrange such meetings and events as in the opinion of the Committee will achieve the above object; and
- If, in the opinion of the Committee, it is considered advisable to raise funds to achieve the above objects, to publish or republish works by other authors, or prints by artists, or other items of a literary artistic association.
Fiction
- Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities (1838)
- Handley Cross (1843)
- Hillingdon Hall (1845)
- Hawbuck Grange (1847)
- Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour (1853)
- Ask Mamma (1858)
- Plain or Ringlets (1858–1860, in twelve parts)
- Mr Facey Romford's Hounds (1865)
- Young Tom Hall (unfinished)
Non-fiction
- The Horseman's Manual (1831)
- Analysis of the Hunting Field (1846)
- Hints to Railway Travellers (1852)
Authorities
- R.S. Surtees, Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities (London, 1869), containing a biographical memoir of the author
- W.P. FrithWilliam Powell FrithWilliam Powell Frith , was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852...
, John Leech, His Life and Work (2 vols, London, 1891) - Samuel Halkett and J Laing, Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain (4 vols, Edinburgh, 1882–1888).
- Anthony SteelAnthony Steel (historian)Anthony Bedford Steel was a British historian, specialising on medieval England. He was a fellow of Christ's College Cambridge, and principal of Cardiff University from 1949–66. Among his publications were a monograph on the reign of Richard II, as well as a biography of 19th-century writer...
, Jorrocks's England: On the Works of Robert Smith Surtees (London: Methuen & Co., 1932).
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