l6o ANIMAL PAINTERS 



Ferneley, being then of age, migrated with his 

 father's consent to London in order to study under 

 Benjamin Marshall. He spent a year in Marshall's 

 studio in Beaumont Street, Marylebone, varying 

 his work there with occasional visits to Dover, 

 where he painted pictures of horses for the officers 

 of the Leicestershire Militia then stationed at 

 Dover Castle. That gentlemen from his native 

 county should have requisitioned his services so soon 

 after he had embraced the artist's career, seems 

 to indicate that the work which engaged his spare 

 time while in his father's yard had attracted atten- 

 tion beyond the limits of his own village. 



He appears to have been of rather restless disposi- 

 tion. When he had spent about twelve months 

 with Marshall, he started to seek his fortune in 

 Ireland, thinking no doubt that a country in which 

 sport ranked so highly in the esteem of all classes 

 offered a promising field to one of his profession. 

 His residence on the other side of St. George's 



o 



Channel was not continuous, as he found time to 

 pay occasional visits to Thrussington. Travel in 

 those days was neither cheap nor expeditious, so it 

 may be fairly concluded that Ferneley was doing 

 well in a pecuniary sense. At all events, he found 

 patrons among the most prominent Irish sportsmen 

 of the time; between the years i8og and 1813 he 

 executed commissions for the Earl of Belmore, 

 Lord Lismore, Lord Rossmore, and many others. 



