[36 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



workmanlike style in which he puts his men in 

 their saddles. The third of the set faces page 



134- 



Dalby, for all his talent, does not appear to 

 have succeeded in a pecuniary sense, for we find 

 that at one time Mr. Dryden, Mr. John Booth,* 

 and others clubbed together to guarantee him 

 twenty hunters to paint at three guineas each. 

 That such an arrangement should have been 

 suoforested at all, indicates that the artist was in 

 want when he had many admirers ; and the fact 

 that he gladly accepted the commission, modest 

 though the remuneration was, confirms the im- 

 pression that this guarantee was in the nature of 

 a charity. 



With the number of patrons and friends upon 

 whose support Dalby could reckon, he should at 

 least have been able to realise a competence ; but 

 had he reaped only a share of the success to which 

 his talents entitled him, it would surely be possible 

 to trace his later career. As it is, we lose sight 

 of him in middle age, when he passes into the 

 unknown. The only conclusion is that the man 

 was his own enemy, and that the kindly exertion 

 of friends failed to save him from himself. 



* Mr. Booth, of Killerby, Yorkshire, was a yeoman farmer 

 and famous breeder of Shorthorns, also one of the best 

 known hunting men in the north of England ; he had great 

 reputation as a wit. 



