The Alken family was one of those illustrious families of sporting artists who flourished in England the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries – the hey-day of the English sporting scene. There were at least 6 members of the family who were practising artists, but of these Henry Thomas Alken (or Henry Alken Senior as he was also known) was the most accomplished. He turned his hand to racing, hunting, fishing and shooting subjects with equal dexterity and showed himself to be similarly adept as an oil painter, watercolourist and soft-ground etcher. With his meticulous approach to detail, he has left us a body of work which is an invaluable record of field-sports in England from the early Regency period right through to the mid-Victorian era.