The painting shows a man blocking foxholes so that a subsequent foxhunt could kill the fox without the animal having the opportunity to hide underground.

Benedict Nicolson, who was an authority on Joseph Wright believed this painting inspired lines of poetry[1] in a collection named after and in aid of the preservation of Needwood Forest.

Mundy's lines read: Whilst as the silver moonbeams rise, Imagin'd temples strike my eyes With tottering spire, and mouldering wall, And high roof nodding to it's fall, - His lanterns gleaming down the glade, One, like a sexton with his spade, Comes from their caverns to exclude The midnight prowlers from the wood...[2] It is apt that Wright who had based his own paintings like Miravan on literature should, in turn, inspire poetry in the group that included Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward.

[4] Coincidentally Charles Yorke (the 5th Earl) was known for his spendthrift ways and Disraeli appointed him, at the request of the Prince of Wales, to the title of Master of the Buckhounds[5] where he was his majesty's representative at Ascot.

The painting was eventually bought by Benedict Nicolson (Wright's biographer)[3] who sold it via the Artfund into the collection of Derby Museum and Art Gallery.