2-791-710 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Palm Sunday in Spitalfields, 1844. In the neighbourhood of London... "palming" is still a practice on the Sunday before Easter. The weavers of Spitalfields, leaving their murky workshops, customarily ramble into the fields and lowlands of Essex, on this day, to gather "palm", and inhale a better atmosphere. Our artist has depicted a scene of the return of one of these parties. The yellow catkins, or male-flowers, are more highly prized than the white, or female flowers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.