Lord Egremont's Dauntless; a fighting cock in a landscape

A plaque on the frame describes Dauntless as the 'Winner of 38 Battles in 1776-77'. George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837), was the eldest son of Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont. Educated at Westminster, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, George was only eleven when his father - then Secretary of State for the Southern Department - died suddenly, and he succeeded to vast ancestral property, including Petworth House, Sussex. Egremont is described, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, as an 'enlightened and philanthropic landowner, an innovative farmer, an expert horticulturalist and silviculturalist, an amateur scientist, and a breeder of livestock and racehorses' (C. Rowell, Oxford, 2004, pp. 664-5). He was in fact one of the most successful owners in the history of the turf, winning both the Derby and the Oaks five times.