Description
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by G D Giles
Goutelette Print
Paper Size:26 x 20 ins (66 x 50 cm)
Image Size: 22 x 16 ins (56 x 40 cm )
The Cheshire Hunt was founded in 1763. The area covered by the Hunt was so considerable that a decision was taken in 1877 to divide the ground between the Cheshire and the South Cheshire Hunts, though the two halves were reunited again in 1907, after this depiction by G D Giles of the Meet in 1904. By the twenty-first century, the Hunt hunted around 25 square miles of the county, principally around Nantwich and Tarporley.
Cheshire is predominantly a rural county, with the miles of grass for its dairy herds fenced by hedges and ditches creating ideal hunting conditions.
The Hunt itself wears a uniform of red coat with hunt buttons but, at the invitation of the Tarporley Hunt Club, a green collar is also worn by the Hunt staff and Master.
Oulton Park today is known particularly for the motor racing track which now occupies much of the area which was previously known as the Oulton Estate. The track is set in the grounds of Oulton Hall, which actually burnt down in 1926.
G D Giles was born in 1857, in India. He is now best-known as painter of military scenes but he also painted both horse-racing and hunting canvases.
Giles left the army in 1884 to work with Carolus-Duran, a French painter and sculptor. He came particularly to public attention with his paintings of the military campaigns in Sudan and Afghanistan, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1884 to1888 and in the Paris Salon in 1885.
Giles also produced a collection of well-known coloured lithographs representing military costumes and The British Museum also holds one Giles drawing of the poet Robert Browning.
G D Giles died in 1941
