The Sport of Our Jincestors 



them all their time to keep out of the way of the horses, 

 even though the horses themselves may look a trifle 

 * coachy/ It would be interesting indeed to have heard 

 Sir Richard's own criticisms when he first saw the picture. 

 Anyway, however they may have been portrayed upon canvas, 

 neither the horses nor the Hounds, unless they had been of 

 the very best, would have satisfied such men as Sir Richard 

 Sutton, Mr. Assheton Smith, the Duke of Rutland, and the 

 other intimate enthusiasts who form this notable group. 

 But the main merit of this picture does not consist in the 

 faithful portrayal of animal anatomy, though we may remark 

 in passing that few artists ever placed a man so easily and 

 comfortably in his saddle as did Sir Francis Grant. His 

 portraits are not of a man on his horse. They are of a man 

 and his horse. Sir Richard Sutton and his horse appear in 

 this portrait to fit each other so gracefully and naturally that 

 it is hard to believe they could ever part company. The 

 charm of this picture and of others like it, such as the Melton 

 Hunt Breakfast, consists of the manner in which they convey 

 the calm spirit of ' the gentlemen of England.' There is no 

 suggestion of neurasthenia in the pictures of Sir Francis 

 Grant. He groups and paints those men who met the Fox- 

 hounds in the morning to ride over each other's land, and 

 met together in the evening to drink each other's claret, as 

 possessing an air of assurance, a power of command, a sense 

 of property, a solidity of position, a freedom from worry, 

 a distinction of manner, and a solemn, almost stodgy sim- 

 plicity, which in those days must have been the traditional 



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