INTRODUCTION 



SURTEES, in writing an introduction to 

 Handley Cross in 1854, said, 'The reader 

 will have the kindness to bear in mind 

 that the work merely professes to be a tale, and 

 does not aspire to the dignity of a novel.' 



However this may be, few books can so well 

 be taken up at any part and read without respect 

 to the story as Handley Cross. No apology is 

 therefore needed for collecting into a separate 

 volume some of Mr. Jorrocks's * Hunts,' possibly 

 the best descriptions of hunting ever written. 



Surtees created the great character of Mr. 

 Jorrocks, and Leech ably translated the hero into 

 pictorial form. 



The Jorrocks so evolved has almost become 

 an historical personage. And no more could a 



