Founded in 1874, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News was a weekly newspaper reporting on sporting events, theatrical news, fictional stories, and a regular chess column, latterly becoming a more farming orientated publication. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News catered for an increasing enthusiasm for sporting and leisure pursuits by the upper and middle classes and primarily focussed on equestrian sports and hunting alongside cricket, tennis, rugby and rowing. 

Featured engraving, illustrations and photography captured action from the regular hunting and theatrical seasons to grand events like The Derby, Ascot, The Lord’s Test, the Boat Race and the Olympics. Illustrations and reporting from the latest theatrical productions and societal sporting events from Henry Irving to Ellen Terry, from Marie Lloyd to Edmund Kean, from WG Grace to Prince Ranjitsinhji and the Baddeley brothers to Charlotte Cooper Sterry, brought the celebrated personalities of the day into the lives and living rooms of its readership. 

In its very first issue in February 1874, the magazine declared “it is our conviction that there is a greater demand for good art than at any previous period of the history of the stage, and therein lies our one great article of faith in the broad field which is now before us.”

The magazine had two title changes during its publication run; first in 1943 to Sport and Country, when it lost its focus on drama and the arts, then again in 1957 to Farm and Country, when technological innovations in farming became a feature, which it was known as until it ceased publication in 1970.