The gentleman wears a fashionable canary yellow waistcoat but is otherwise soberly dressed in black and grey in contrast with the gaudy beer seller. His daughter wears a heavy riding habit; these were often extremely long, which meant that the wearer had to be assisted onto the horse by servants, thus wearing such a garment indicated one's wealth and status.

Note that the rider and the two other wealthy ladies are wearing gloves on a hot July day.

Read what the artist said about these figures...

'The couple on horseback in the middle distance, consists of a gentleman, still young, and his daughter. (The rich and the poor marry early, only those of moderate incomes procrastinate.) This gentleman is evidently very rich, probably a Colonel in the army, with a seat in Parliament, and fifteen thousand a-year, and a pack of hounds. He is not an over-dressed man of the tailor's dummy sort - he does not put his fortune on his back, he is too rich for that; moreover, he looks to me an honest true hearted gentleman (he was painted from one I know), and could he only be got to hear what the two sages in the corner have to say, I have no doubt he would be easily won over. But the road is blocked, and the daughter says we must go back, papa, round the other way.