The Ditch: Newmarket

The 1930s were some of the busiest and hard working for Edwards as his work was affected by the recession. In 1932 he wrote to his friend Denis Aldridge, 'I cannot afford to go on breeding horses - got too many two-legged foals - no more four-legged ones, thank you.' In a later correspondence to Denis he notes 'I am too broke to go to Exmoor this autumn, in fact so broke I am leaving my horses out a grass as long as possible, and if trade does not improve they will have to stay out during the winter.' (M. Edwards, Figures In A Landscape, Lionel Edwards, R.I., R.C.A. A Sporting Artist and his Family, London, 1986, p. 90).

The year the present work was undertaken was a particularly productive one for Edwards. Despite a decline in patronage and reduction in the level of riding and hunting that he was used to as a result of the recession, Edwards wrote and illustrated several books: Wiles of the Fox, Famous Foxhunters and My Hunting Sketchbook, Vol. II, all of which were published in 1932. A critic writing for the Daily Telegraph on 9 December 1932 remarked, 'I cannot explain why this of all years should see a record number of books on foxhunting.' (op. cit.). He also undertook an interesting commission to decorate the Plaza Ballroom in Dublin for the Irish Sweepstake. The scheme comprised the leading episodes of Epsom racecourse on Derby Day.