Hawking Party

The statue was commissioned by Earl de Grey, whose memoirs recall that a man named Smith carved the horse from a sketch by the Earl himself at a cost of £100. The horse (without a rider) was placed originally over the archway on the north side of the stable complex, leading into the stable-yard. The Earl became concerned that the piece could not be seen and became covered in moss, so he sketched a figure of a female rider to sit on it and commissioned an Irish sculptor, Terence Farrell, to carve the woman with her falcon and two pages. Once completed, the piece was set on a plinth and relocated atop a grass mound in its current position to the south of the Orangery.