#robert smith surtees

[blackswaneuroparedux]

There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse.

Robert Smith Surtees

[clove-pinks]

Not to be Ohh Mister Waffles at 2 in the morning, but I am not over Mr. Waffles, from the 1852 novel Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees.

Mr. Waffles was a "pretty man." Tall, slim, and slight, with long curly light hair, pink and white complexion, visionary whiskers, and a tendency to moustache that could best be seen sideways. He had light blue eyes; while his features generally were good, but expressive of little beyond great good-humour. In dress, he was both smart and various; indeed, we feel a difficulty in fixing him in any particular costume, so frequent and opposite were his changes. He had coats of every cut and colour. Sometimes he was the racing man with a bright-button'd Newmarket brown cut-away, and white-cord trousers, with drab cloth-boots; anon, he would be the officer, and shine forth in a fancy forage cap, cocked jauntily over a profusion of well-waxed curls, a richly braided surtout, with military over-alls strapped down over highly varnished boots, whose hypocritical heels would sport a pair of large rowelled, long-necked, ringing, brass spurs. Sometimes he was a Jack tar, with a little glazed hat, a once-round tye, a checked shirt, a blue jacket, roomy trousers, and broad-stringed pumps; and, before the admiring ladies had well digested him in that dress, he would be seen cantering away on a long-tailed white barb, in a pea-green duck-hunter, with cream-coloured leather and rose-tinted tops.

[...] He had always been a most important personage among the ladies, but as the men couldn't marry him, those who didn't want to borrow money of him, of course, ran him down. It used to be, "Look at that dandified ass, Waffles, I declare the sight of him makes me sick;" or, "What a barber's apprentice that fellow is, with his ringlets all smeared with Macassar."

HELLO????

And of course he's illustrated by John Leech!!

I have never read R.S. Surtees other than skimming him, but Phillis and Cecil Cunnington used him a lot as a source on clothing and fashion for Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century.

[merelygifted]

- Robert S Surtees, from MR FACEY ROMFORD’S HOUNDS (1865)

THE ORIGINAL POST HAS BEEN MARKED AS “SENSITIVE” AND NSFW, and has been in appeal FOR MONTHS! I still get followed by hundreds of actual PORN BOTS, but u marked THIS post as “SENSITIVE.”  Guess I know whose side yr on, tumblr.

Try, try again...

[blackswaneuroparedux]

There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse.

- Robert Smith Surtees

[merelygifted]

The 'oss loves the 'ound, and I loves both.

John Jorrocks

From Handley Cross; or, Mr. Jorrocks's Hunt by Robert Smith Surtees

[merelygifted]

- Robert S Surtees, from MR FACEY ROMFORD’S HOUNDS (1865)

THIS POST HAS BEEN MARKED AS “SENSITIVE” AND NSFW. I get followed by hundreds of actual PORN BOTS w/horrible images and gifs, but U mark THIS post as “SENSITIVE.” Guess I know whose side yr on, tumblr.

THIS POST HAS BEEN IN "CONTENT MODERATION" FOR YEARS! WHY?!

[clove-pinks]

The Victoria & Albert Museum is determined to make me read the novels of R.S. Surtees, I think. Surtees is quoted by the V&A to describe men's apparel for multiple items in their clothing and textiles collection. He was known as a comic writer, and apparently a very clothing-focused writer?? e.g. the fox head waistcoat of his character Mr. Jawleyford.