Antique Framed Print “Bachelor’s Hall Plate 4” by F C Turner – early 1900s

This fabulous hand-colored aquatint engraving print is one of 6 images that were painted by English artist Francis Calcraft Turner in the early 1800s, meant to be a humorous portrayal of bachelor fox hunters – “To Bachelor’s Hall We Good Fellows Ride”. F C Turner was a Georgian-era artist who specialized in outdoor scenes and his prints were finely detailed; of special interest were the Aylesbury fox hunting/ steeplechase scenes, which are very similar to the Bachelor Hall series. This print includes the hunting prose of Charles Dibdin, who was an English composer and musician (1745-1814) and was in his time a most prolific song writer and performer:

“Our horses thus all of the very best blood

‘Tis not likely you’ll easily find such a stud

And for hounds our opinions with thousands we’ll back

That all England throughout can’t produce such a pack

Thus having described you, dogs, horses and crew

Away we set off for the fox is in view

Hark away, hark away……..