Thomas Colleton Garth, 'A Very Old Master'

Spy (Leslie Ward) renders Garth in full hunting pink — scarlet coat, buff waistcoat, white breeches, tan-topped boots — with a top hat and riding crop, posing in three-quarter profile against a flat grey-green ground. The caption 'A Very Old Master' acknowledges that Garth, founder of the Berkshire Garth Hunt, was by 1896 an elderly figure still commanding the field: the joke is affectionate rather than cutting. The caricature exaggerates his angular, hawk-nosed profile and slight stoop, hallmarks of Ward's technique for depicting patrician age. The tone is the magazine's characteristic blend of mild mockery and social flattery toward the fox-hunting establishment.