266 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



a plain but elegant riding habit and a wide brimmed 

 Leghorn hat. 



The Elsenham collection contains several exam- 

 ples of Wootton's work, among which may be 

 mentioned : a large upright painting of Sir 

 Robert Walpole standing by his hunter, with 

 hounds in the foreground ; " Waiting for the 

 Master," a groom holding a crop-eared grey, an 

 engraving from which is here reproduced. These 

 two pictures were formerly at Houghton Hall. 

 Other pictures are : a portrait of The Bloody 

 Shouldered Arabian, with his Persian groom and 

 a greyhound, signed and dated 1726; and a life- 

 size portrait of an Irish Water Spaniel. The 

 latter is an excellent specimen of Wootton's skill 

 as an animal painter ; it is in a quaint wooden 

 frame of the period, with an emblematical female 

 head in a large shell carved on the top. This 

 picture was in the Hamilton Castle collection, 

 sold at Christie's. 



For the Hunting Hall at Houghton, Norfolk, 

 Wootton painted a hunting piece 8 feet 5 inches 

 long and 6 feet 10 inches wide, into which he in- 

 troduced equestrian portraits of Sir Robert Walpole, 

 Colonel Charles Churchill, and Mr. Thomas Turner. 

 An engraving, plate 24 inches by 17 inches, from 

 this picture by D. Lerpinsir was published in 1778 

 by John Boydell. 



