The Jacobean house at Moor Park, near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, was rebuilt in circa 1720 by Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni for Benjamin Styles. Later in the eighteenth century the house was owned by Lord Anson and Sir Lawrence Dundas and subsequently bought in 1828 by Robert, 2^nd Earl Grosvenor, later Marquess of Westminster (1767-1845). After his death, Moor Park was inherited by the Marquess’s third son, Lord Robert Grosvenor (1801-1893), created Baron Ebury in 1857. Robert was a Privy Councillor; M.P. (1822-47); Comptroller of the Queen’s Household (1830-34); Treasurer of the Household (1846-7); and Groom of the Stole to Prince Albert (1840-41). As well as enthusiastic sportsmen and horse breeders, several generations of the Grosvenor family were great patrons of John Ferneley throughout his career. Amongst the artist’s earliest commissions from the family were The Belvoir Hunt, 1827 and The Cheshire Hunt, 1828, painted for Lord Belgrave, later Earl Grosvenor and 1st Marquess of Westminster.

Ferneley was one of the most important painters of sporting art of his generation. The sixth son of a Leicestershire wheelwright, Ferneley's talent was spotted at a young age by the Duke of Rutland who, in 1801, is said to have persuaded the artist's father to allow him to become a pupil of Ben Marshall, himself of Leicestershire origin, who was then working in London. Over the next years, Ferneley’s reputation grew swiftly; he enrolled in the Royal Academy, and by 1814 had set up a studio in Melton Mowbray, hub of the fox-hunting scene and an important centre for sporting art. By 1853, the date of the present work, Ferneley was well-established in Melton Mowbray, and had garnered a deep-rooted reputation for his sporting paintings, enjoying frequent patronage amongst the aristocracy.