Depictions of the Royal Mail Coach often took a nostalgic view of a “simpler time” before the introduction of the railroad. In the following excerpt from “The English-Mail Coach”, an 1849 essay, English writer Thomas De Quincey defends the old mail-coach system by describing the rush of riding as a passenger atop the carriage.
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A successful foxhunt requires the coordination of a full team of huntsmen. Whippers-in, or whips, are the members of a foxhunt responsible for keeping the hounds from straying off track. In this excerpt from his 1841 manual on hunting, Robert Thomas Vyner sings the praises of talented whippers-in.
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The appearance of a woman wearing a London riding habit in Kettering, Northhamptonshire, England, in July 1724 speaks to the shock of the “new woman” who bounds through John Collet’s painting.
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John Lawrence (1753-1839), an early animal rights advocate and author on horsemanship, appraises Stubbs’s painting of Shark, a champion racehorse in England who later produced on of the most important thoroughbred bloodlines in the United States.
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Close your eyes and listen to broadcaster John Hunt’s call of a record setting harness-racing time trial by the champion Australian pacer Village Kid!
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Listen to a recording of Degas’ thoughts on his own sculpture, as recalled by French art critic François Thiebault-Sisson.
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Artists like Barye took advantage of the access to wild and exotic animals provided by zoos like the Mênagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In this recorded excerpt, English zoologist and writer Edward Turner Bennett describes constrictors in The Tower Menagerie (1829), a collection of anecdotes about animals kept in the British Royal Family’s zoo.
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Though sensitivity toward animals increased in the 18th and 19th centuries, artists continued to paint the very birds that hunters happily continued to hunt. Ruffs and reeves were a delicacy for sportsmen. The Cook’s Guide and Housekeeper’s & Butler’s Assistant, an 1861 book by Charles Elmé Francatelli, who served as chief cook to Queen Victoria, includes this recipe for the second course roast—“ruffs and reeves”.
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Taken from an account of his travels in South America, this audio recording of Catlin’s writing recounts the artist stealthily approaching a colony of flamingos.
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It might be easy to think of the horses themselves as the only athletes competing in horse races, but as this excerpt from Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit details, jockeys must be in top physical condition in order to pilot their steeds to victory.
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