A curiosity of 1890 literature, in the shape of The Blue Calendar: Praises of Twelve Saints, written by John Gray, may also be seen at "The Bungalow." This little book, by the author of Silverpoints, was privately printed at 92 Mount Street in 1896, and may be bought for two guineas.
A. L. H.
CORRESPONDENCE
SURTEES
(To the Editor of The London Mercury)
Sir,—In your admirable columns on Bibliography A. L. H. writes (November issue): "It is interesting to note what high prices the works of Surtees can always command." They certainly do; but is it not Leech rather than Surtees who gives them their value?
Handley Cross is doubtless immortal because of the creation of Jorrocks and James Pigg, the best portrait of the hard-riding, reckless, witty Northumbrian since Shakespeare's Hotspur, but Plain or Ringlets, Ask Mamma, and the rest are surely only valuable on account of Leech's illustrations?
I imagine that the original Handley Cross, in three volumes, 1843, London, will not fetch as much as the later and expanded Handley Cross, with Leech's illustrations, published London, 1854.