A Lady and a Gentleman setting out riding, in the park of a country house, possibly Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, visible through an avenue of trees beyond

The artist was the eldest son of John Ferneley, Senior, and brother of Claude Lorraine and Sarah Ferneley. He seems to have been largely taught by his father who greatly influenced. Although he began working in Melton Mowbray, where he is known to have been painting in 1836, he later moved to York, where he is recorded by 1839, most probably attracted by the large number of patrons in the area.
It has been suggested that the house in the background of this picture may be Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, which was built circa 1583/4 at the same time as Worksop and Wollaton, in Nottinghamshire, which had been designed by Robert Smythson. Although there is nothing among Smythson's drawings that is directly connected with the house or any other documentary evidence that Smythson had a hand in its design, the houses seem clearly related and there is little doubt that Smythson supplied the plans for it (see M. Girouard, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House, New Haven and London, 1983, pp.120-5, pls. 67, 69 and colour plate VIII). The house was built for Francis Rodes, a self-made lawyer, who seems to have owed his success to the Shrewsbury family, in recognition of which he displayed the Shrewsbury arms on the main front of the house, above his own shield and below the arms of the Queen.