3 Review(s)

Hunting from Hampstead is the remarkable testament of the closing years of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century through the photograph albums of one extraordinary family. The marriage of Lucy Pemberton to Henry Stedall in 1868 marks the beginning of this unique family archive. Lucy, like many Victorians, was fascinated by the new medium of photography and began what was to become a comprehensive family record. Far from being of specialised interest, the photographs document over 100 years of radical social change. From the fields around Hampstead where Lucy's sons, Cecil and Leigh, hunted and raced their horses, the pictures bear witness to the family's personal upheavals brought on by war and tragedy. The same beloved horses took the trip with Cecil and Leigh to the Eastern front in the Great War and photos never fail even in the face of conflict. Complemented by a richly detailed account of the Stedalls' life and loves, Hunting from Hampstead is a snapshot of the way we were.