159 



JOHN E. FERNELEY. 



(Born 1782. Died i85o.) 



JOHN E. FERNELEY was born on i8th 

 ^ May, 1782, at Thrussington, in Leicester- 

 shire, a place well known to followers of the 

 Quorn. The son of the village wheelwright, he 

 followed his father's craft and worked in his 

 yard until he attained the age of twenty-one. 

 A wheelwright's business is not one that at first 

 sight appears to offer scope for the exercise of 

 artistic talents. But the born artist makes oppor- 

 tunities for himself, and in his teens young 

 Ferneley betrayed his real bent by adorning the 

 foreboards of waggons sent for repair with devices 

 in colours which he prepared for himself Further 

 proof of his proclivities was forthcoming in his 

 method of employing his leisure hours, which he 

 spent copying pictures borrowed for the purpose. 



His success in these early efforts evidently 

 impressed Ferneley senior, who must have been 

 a man of less narrow views than some of the 

 parents who have claimed incidental notice in 

 these biographical sketches, for in 1803, John E. 



