The portrait of James Hope Grant painted by Sir Francis Grant when his brother, Colonel Grant, was home on leave in 1853, is an excellent illustration of the dress uniform of the 9th Lancers shortly before it was radically changed in 1855. The portrait can be usefully compared with the portrait of Lieutenant Charles Law which was painted in 1846 to show that little had changed.
The gold cord cap-lines have large olivet ends instead of the tassels worn previously, but they are still worn the same way, distinctive to the 9th Lancers, crossing across the front of the cap and falling on the right side but passing under the left arm and hooking up onto the jacket just below his medals. The normal method of wearing the cap-lines by lancer regiments was having them wind around the body from the right shoulder, showing as a bunch of five cords.
He wears white gauntlets which conceal scarlet pointed cuffs edged with gold embroidery. The scarlet collar can just be seen at the back of his neck, the front being covered in gold embroidery. The elaborate gold epaulettes should have an embroidered crown badge for his rank but it is not apparent. The lance-cap has a large gilt metal boss on the top with a gilt plume holder supporting a luxuriant black cocks’ feather plume. His gold laced waist-belt is pulled down on the left side by the weight of the dress sabretache which shows a purple leather backing. And the dress trousers have a double gold lace stripe, each stripe three quarters of an inch wide.
