The Council of Horses (from John Gay's Fables), 1850

Inscribed 'Melton Mowbray' dated 1850. Fable XLIII from The Fables, Volume 1 (1727) by John Gay (1685-1732) Scene of horses and ponies of different colours and breeds in a forest clearing. 'Bought by Sir Sir John Harpur Crewe for £200. According to the artist's account book, the highest price for which he sold a painting. Exhibited at the British Institute, 1851.' The fable tell how a proud unbroken colt 'with mutiny had fired the train and spread dissension through the plain' by refusing to be broken in and advising the other horses not to work for Man. This is the bay horse standing on the left. All the horses agree until an old horse steps forward; the large dark brown horse with four white stockings and a white face. Old and wise, he rebukes the young colt; 'When I had health and strength like you/The toils of servitude I knew./Now grateful man rewards my pains/And gives me all these wide domains. At will I crop the year's increase,/My latter life is rest and peace.' The poem ends; 'The tumult ceased: the colt submitted/And like his ancestors was bitted.'