JAMES SEYMOUR 1 65 



In reoard to this it must be remembered that 

 Wootton was an artist from the first, while Sey- 

 mour only adopted the profession when necessity 

 compelled him to find means of supporting him- 

 self He accepted commissions to paint pictures 

 only after his money was gone. One of his earliest 

 commissions was given him by Mr. Charles Pel- 

 ham, of Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, in 1724, 

 when he was only twenty-two years of age. For 

 this gentleman he executed a portrait of Old 

 Partner, a race-horse, foaled in 1 7 1 8, which picture, 

 one hundred and one years later, was etched by 

 John Scott for the Sporting Magazine of 1825. 



Seymour had few rivals to contend with in 

 painting portaits of race-horses at the commence- 

 ment of his career. Thomas Spencer certainly was 

 in the field, and John Wootton, being 17 years 

 his senior, had in early life made the portraits of 

 horses a speciality. When Seymour took up his 

 residence at Newmarket as a professional painter 

 of equine portraits he had the knowledge gained 

 during his own brief and unfortunate turf career 

 to supplement his natural ability. Whether he 

 owed anything of his success to the readiness of 

 his former racing friends to help one in adversity, 

 or whether the superiority of his work to the 

 accepted standards of merit alone brought him to 

 the front, we need not enquire. It is certain that 



