JOHN WOOTTON 267 



Earl Spencer has now in his collection a very 

 clever group painting of Wootton, entitled, " The 

 Chase is Over," an enairavinor from which faces 

 p. 270. This work was painted for the gallery at 

 Althorp in Northamptonshire ; the figures in the 

 foreground represent the Hon. John Spencer, 

 Charles, Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Vane. 

 From the Atina/s of Sporting for October, 1827, 

 we take the following quotation from an article 

 referring to the picture, an engraving from which, 

 by Percy Roberts, is there reproduced : 



Charles, the second Duke of Marlborough, the grandfather 

 of the present Duke, was at the period of which we are 

 speaking the possessor of Althorp, and his spirit and 

 liberality led him to decorate the broad sides of the superb 

 entrance hall with paintings by the pencil of the once famed 

 and still highly esteemed John Wootton, descriptive of the 

 matchless pleasures of the jovial chase. 



To the left, covering the whole side, there is a glowing 

 representation of that moment of " maddening joy," " A 

 Burst " ; whilst opposite, and of equal dimensions, is its 

 companion (the original of our engraving), "The Chase is 

 over." 



The main incidents of the picture are so famihar to every 

 good sportsman that we need not illustrate by words ; 

 Reynard is beaten — slain ; the huntsman holds him aloft, 

 and the brush being won, the hungered hounds are leaping 

 around in eager rivalry for their share of the spoil. 



To the left of the picture, in the foreground, is a group 

 drawn and executed with great spirit and truth. The lower 

 figure, to the left, is the Hon. John Spencer, grandfather to the 

 present Earl ; the central figure is that of Charles Duke of 

 Marlborough ; and the third figure, to the right, is that of 



