Related article:
The Quorn Hunt: a caricature
sketch in oils. The scene is the
district of Stapleford, in Leicester-
shire, and the figures are portraits
of well-known followers of the
Hunt. Sir F. Holyoake Goodricke
leads the first flight on Brilliant,
and the other riders are the Mar-
quis of Worcester, Lord Bel-
grave, Lord Milton, Lord Fores-
ter, Lord Alvanley, Lord Bru-
denell. Sir Bellingham Graham,
Sir Francis Burdett, Sir Edward
Mostyn, Sir Francis Mackenzie,
Colonel the Hon. Arden, the Hon.
Robert Grosvenor, Captain Fred-
erick Berkeley, Captain C. Berke-
ley, Captain Garth, Captain Ross,
Count Sandos, Messrs. George
Anson, Blount, William Coke,""'
Maxse, Maher, White, Kent,
Patrick, T. Heycock, Gilmore,
• This gentleman, on a chestnut horse, is por-
trayed in the foreground, wearing a low-crowned
hat. It is worth noting that Mr. William Coke
introduced this style of headgear, which has since
been known by his name in the slightly corrupted
form of *' Billycock."
Nicholson, Lyne Stephens, Whar-
ton, John Wormald, Henry Wor-
mald, and Dick Christian. The
riders are represented in very
various attitudes ; Sir F. Holy-
oake Goodricke, who leads, was
said Effexor Xr Anxiety to try and catch the fox himself,
while others are riding hard, fall-
ing off — in short, in every position
in which the fortune of the chase
may find a keen rider. On the
left of the picture we see a Effexor Xr Prices group,
eager and angry, having been stop-
ped at a gate in a lane by a brood
mare and her foal, which block
their way. This canvas is dated
1828 ; size 83 inches by 25 inches;
it is in the Elsenham collection.
Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. : an
equestrian portrait. Ferneley re-
ceived from Miss Burdett Coutts
(now the Baroness Burdett Coutts)
the commission to paint this pic-
ture of her father, who then re-
sided at Foremark, Derbyshire.
Filagree and Cobweb: two race-
horses with foals : painted for
Lord Jersey.
Velocipede and The Cur: two
race-horses, painted for Mr.
Crawford.
Waiting for a Shot at Roedeer :
a portrait of John Henry Bouclitch,
for 45 years head keeper to the
Earl of Kintore.
The Horse Fair and The CatfU
Market. These were two of
Ferneley's latest works ; their
interest is largely due to the
artist's introduction therein of
equine portraits, and of ** horsey "
characters of note at the time.
Ferneley's contributions to the
Royal Academy were less
numerous than his large output
might justify us in expecting; the
probability is that in his day the
practice, now so usual among-
painters, of stipulating for per-
mission to exhibit a work before
delivery to the person who had
commissioned it, was not in vogue.
During the period 1806-1853 he
1897.]
ANIMAL PAINTERS.
191
sent only nineteen pictures — a list
of these is appended. In the issues
of the Sporting Magazine , between
the years 181 2 and 1859, we find
seven engravings from his works,
and the New Sporting Magazine,
for the years 1832, 1834, ^^^ 1838,
contains three plates, engraved
from pictures by Ferneley.
During the artist's long re-
sidence at Melton Mowbray, ex-
tending over 54 years, he neces-
sarily witnessed many changes ;
his experience is eloquently re-
flected in his works, which give us
portraits of three generations of the
hard-riding sportsmen of Leicester-
shire. It is impossible to leave
this phase of the subject without
more specific reference to the man
who was so prominent a figure
with the Quorn hounds in Feme-
ley's day ; and again, we cannot do
better than quote from the book
already mentioned — Sir John
Eardley Wilmot's Reminiscences of
Thomas Assheton Smith. It is
peculiarly apposite, as the writer's
remarks are inspired by a picture
painted by Ferneley : —
*' Speaking on the subject of hounds, we
are naturally drawn to contemplate the
splendid picture of the hunt at Tedworth,
painted at Penton in 1829, by Mr. Feme-
ley, who came expressly from Leicester-
shire into Hants, and was the squire's
guest for a fortnight, for this purpose. Mr.
Smith, as has been elsewhere already men-
tioned, is on Ayrton, with Dick Burton,
his huntsman, standing at the side of the
Big Grey ; Tom Day, the first whip, on
Reformer ; and Bob Edwards, the second
whip, holding Anderson, Mr. Smith's
second horse. The numerous hounds in
the picture are all portraits. Among those
most famous are Rifleman, standing close
to Dick Burton, who has a pair of couples
in bis hand. Watchman, Dimity, Chorister,
Dabchick, Trimbush, Tomboy, Traffic,
Reginald, Rubicon, Round ley, Rosy,
Commodore, and Clinker. Trimbush is
looking up at Mr. Smith, while Chorister
stands under his horse's head, and Rifle-
man with the huntsman is at his side. In
front of the picture are Commodore and
Watchman, while Rarity is gamboling
towards her master. Under the tree, in
the background, sits Remus, a well-known
hound. On the left is Tedworth House.
The sportsman in the green coat just about
to mount his horse in the distance is Mr.
North-east, the agent of the Tedworth
estates, famous for his judgment and experi-
ence in the breeding of Southdown sheep."
Speaking of this picture, and of the princi-
pal figure in it, Mr. Ferneley says in a
letter written on the 23id of October last:
•* It gives me much pleasure to hear of the
publication of a memoir of so excellent a
sportsman and so good a man. It is now
fifty-three years since I first saw him ; he
was riding his horse Jack-o'- Lantern. I
saw him near Frisby Gorse, trying to get
his horse over a flight of rails six or seven
times, but he refused, and Mr. Smith had
to take him to another place before he
could succeed." Mr. Ferneley adds: ** He
was the first red-coat I painted, and on
Jack-o*- Lantern. The picture was bought
by Mr. Valentine Maher, and at his death
it was sold, and I do not know what be-
came of it. This was in 1806, the year
Mr. Smith first took the Quorn Hounds. I
also painted his portrait with his hounds
for the Earl of Plymouth. In the same
picture were portraits of Lords Plymouth,
Aylesford and Dartmouth, Messrs. P.
Mills, J. Bradshaw, Paris, J. W. Edge,
Hinton, &c. This was in 1819; and I
fear never again will Leicestershire boast
the assembling together of such thorough
six>rtsmen, as well as kind, noble-hearted
men."
Ferneley's unwearying energy
and industry and dauntless per-
severance continued until the last,
though during the two closing
years of his life he was a great
invalid. To the end he was an
early riser ; no matter how
sleepless or full of pain the night,
he was in his studio with the
morning light, handling the brush
which produced so much, and
such marvellous work. He was a
man whose interests were not con-
fined to his own department of
art ; to the end of his life it was