Elford, the Favourite Hunter of Hugo F. Meynell Ingram Esq., with Tom Leedham, the Huntsman, and hounds at Hoar Cross Hall

The Meynell family were involved in fox hunting in England from its earliest days. Hugo F. Meynell Ingram (1821/2-1871) was the great grandson of Hugo Meynell of Quorndon (d.1808), who was known as 'the father of fox-hunting'. He founded the famous Quorn Hunt in 1750 and helped make Leicestershire the best-known area for fox hunting in the country. Hugo Meynell was the first man to study hunting in an organised and scientific manner, as well as being responsible for breeding a taller, faster type of hound that was more suited to the chase. The Meynell family bought the Hoar Cross estate in 1793, and built a house there as well as founding the Meynell Hunt, to hunt the country in the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border.

The present work depicts the Meynell Hunt, with Tom Leedham, the Huntsman in the grounds of Hoar Cross Hall. A number of the individual hounds are identified in an original inscription on the canvas.