The Analysis of the Hunting Field deluxe edition + 2 ALS Robert Surtees 1903

SURTEES, Robert Smith. – The Analysis of the Hunting Field (1903 deluxe edition, 1 of 50), with two autograph letters including one to Queen Victoria. 
 
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1903. 
 
Large 4to (320 × 23 mm). [xv], pp. 306 with 13 hand-coloured plates and 43 hand-coloured text illustrations after Henry Alken, finely executed on thick paper. Publisher’s quarter vellum over blue-grey boards, spine lettered gilt, edges untrimmed. Limited to 50 deluxe copies only for Great Britain and the United States, this being No. 49. Armorial bookplate of Charles Hesketh Fleetwood-Hesketh to front pastedown. Vellum spine faintly toned, light handling marks to boards, with one small mark to the lower board, plates bright with only occasional marginal spotting. Letters with folds and light soiling consistent with age. 
 
Loosely inserted are two autograph letters of significant interest. The first is an ALS from Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle, 25 September 1840, granting permission to hunt across his estates: “I shall have great pleasure in continuing to you permission to hunt … over my property between the Rivers Tyne and Derwent during the ensuing season. I am Sir, your obdt. Servt., Northumberland.” The second is an ALS from Robert Smith Surtees, dated 29 April 1862, to General Charles Grey, private secretary to Queen Victoria. Surtees forwards a sermon preached at Durham Cathedral on the death of Prince Albert, suggesting it may be of interest to the Queen: “Knowing the deep interest Her Majesty must take in all that relates to the lamented Prince, I take the liberty of forwarding a copy of a sermon … as a sermon pointing out the benefit of so good an example in all men from the Prince downwards. I leave it to you to lay before Her Majesty or not as you think right.” 
 
First published in 1846 with Alken’s celebrated sporting illustrations, The Analysis of the Hunting Field remains Surtees’ most widely recognised work. The 1903 Kegan Paul edition offered here is not a reissue of the trade edition but a deluxe production, issued in only fifty copies, each with Alken’s plates and text illustrations hand-coloured. These plates, originally executed as etched aquatints, represent the high point of Victorian sporting art. 
 
While Surtees (1805–1864) is remembered for his novels satirising the hunting world, the two manuscript letters included here show him in broader contexts. The Duke of Northumberland’s letter illustrates the practical dependencies of nineteenth-century hunting culture on landed permission. More striking is Surtees’ own letter to General Grey in 1862, written shortly after Prince Albert’s death, offering material that might console Queen Victoria. A rare collection with letters from Surtees rarely appearing in commerce.