A Dalme – tian. Booking the Colonel. This Sketch is dedicated to the Greeks.

William Heath
A Dalme – tian. Booking the Colonel. This Sketch is dedicated to the Greeks.
London, T. McLean June 26th 1829
Etching
Original hand-colouring
£160
A full length caricature portrait of the gentleman jockey, sportsman and Royal racehorse trainer Peter Delmé Radcliffe (1804-71), of Hitchin Priory, Herts. Small and scrawny, he is in profile to the right, wearing a top hat, brown frock coat, breeches and topboots. He carries his whip under his arm and a betting book in one hand. Above the design is inscribed Turf Characters – “Quoth Hudibrass I smell a Rat xxxx”, and above Radcliffe’s head is scrawled Zinganee by Gad. This caricature is an unflattering allusion to the running of the Gold Cup at Ascot on June 18th 1829. The King’s horse The Colonel had been expected to win, but the King was very disappointed that he had been beaten by Zinganee, sold to Lord Chesterfield only two hours before the race. A report appeared in the Sporting Magazine for October that The Colonel had been seen being hardridden by ‘a drunken fellow’ only four days before the race, an accusation hotly denied by Radcliffe in the Morning Post. Radcliffe’s reputation, however, never recovered from the scandal. BM 15932.