AN oil painting depicting the first meet of the Cotswold Hunt more than 100 years ago is up for auction on October 19.

The painting, by the Victorian artist George Bouverie Goddard, is signed and dated as 1859 and is sure to attract a lot of interest from countryside enthusiasts with a spare £15,000 to £20,000 in their pocket.

The Cotswold Hunt was established around 1858 following on from Lord Fitzharding's disbandment of his own pack of hounds.

A write-up taken from the Illustrated London News of the period reads: "These hounds, under the mastership of Crego Colmore Esq, commenced their season on Monday, November 1, at Dowdeswell Wood, situated three miles out of Cheltenham on the London Road.

"The meet was numerously attended by the elite of Cheltenham and was honoured by a goodly number of carriages of almost every description.

"At about half past eleven, the hounds were thrown into a covert, and finding immediately the scent being good they rattled him up through the wood and "Charley", after two or three futile attempts to break covert, stole away in the direction of Eton, but being headed he doubled back, crossed the London Road by Cothorne House, and pointed for Lineover Wood which he skirted, the hounds rattling him in right good style.

"He then doubled short back, and evidently meant making Dowdeswell Wood again, but the scent was too good with such a pack at his heels and he was run into "in the open" close by the field in which the meet took place, after a very sharp forty five minutes and was broken up in view of the entire range of carriages which thronged the road.

"The Master then proceeded to draw for a second fox, which was soon found, after bustling him for an hour they pulled him down in Puckham Scrubs and thus ended the first day with the Cotswold."

The setting of the picture is Dowdeswell Wood looking across the old London Road, which is now the very busy A40, with the reservoir on the right.

The painting has been entered for sale by a local Gloucestershire vendor and is expected to create considerable interest. It is being sold by Mallams at Cheltenham salerooms on October 19.