Rather than being a racing scene, this majestic print captures the society orbiting the racing enthusiast, George, Prince of Wales.
'Craven's Sporting Review' (1859) records: "A View of Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Trains of Running Horses, with the Grooms and Horses in their Full Liveries:
" was the popular print of 1790. The Warren Hill is the scene of the afternoon's revel. Quiet little Newmarket just peeps forth in the hollow, in the centre of that restless panorama; and in the far distance the Ely Minster turrets cut the cloudless sky, and struggle manfully for preminence with Highflyer Hall. In the foreground is the Prince, by the grace of the artist a somewhat slim-looking buck, in a sort of Don Cæsar de Bazan beaver, standing up in his phaeton with four greys, and booking a bet with the shrivelled Duke of Orleans on horseback at his side. His brother "York" has alighted, and is gaily pointing out to a lady a long-sheeted string, which are, West Australian fashion, cutting down cutting down the Warren Hill like a scythe, in the direction of King Charles' Cupola chair. On the extreme left, the Countess of Barrymore, in the costume of "Those tea-cup days of hoop and hood, And when the patch was worn," sits in the phaeton by the side of her eccentric liege lord (who was so soon to fall lifeless in her arms as his hand held the reins), and listens to the animated periods of Charles James Fox, as he exults in the coming laurels of his Seagull and his Put. John Duke of Bedford is also amid the throng; and so are Haggerston, George Hanger, Wyndham, Captain Grosvenor, and Bullock. That ancient oddity, Colonel Thornton, though not much of a racing man, has wandered off here as well, and Falconer's Hall — where his seventy hooded hawks were kept to complete the devastation among the Yorkshire Wold game, which his three 150-guinea guns, "Death," "Destruction," and "Fate," were unable to accomplish — is forgotten for the nonce in the prospect of the forthcoming Grosvenor Stakes.
Opposite the likeness of Dick Christian, stands that of Jem Robinson, the jockey; and the Biography of the latter, from his stable-boy days - when he would promise another lad half his plum-pudding on Sunday to rack up his horse, that he might absent himself and see Frank Buckle ride, to his triumph with Dictator, and the same Frank on Merlin, and his victories on Lamplighter and Margrave - is told with the spirit and condensation which are so appropriate to all such narratives. Sam Chifney, George Edwards, the two Sam Days, Charles Marlow, Conolly, Pavis; veteran Tommy Lye; Bill Scott, of "strenuous speech" and energetic finish; Marson, Butler, and a host of other heroes of the weighing stand, find a place in the "Druid's" memory ; and a powerful appeal in favour of their class concludes his elaborate list of the jockeys of England".
£2400
Framed
A few repairs. Some names added in pencil in title area. |
