2-913-552 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Song of the Shirt" - painted by A.E. Blunden - from the Exhibition of the Society of British Artists, 1854. 'Engraving from a picture by Miss Blunden, embodying in a very forcible manner the sentiment of the famous "Song of a Shirt," exhibited in the Gallery of the Society of British Artists. The poor sempstress is seated at a garret window, and, looking out disconsolately upon the roofs of the crowded city, her hands clasped, as she sings the doleful lines:- "For only one short hour, To feel as I used to feel, Before I knew the woes of want, And the walk that costs a meal"'. The poem "The Song of the Shirt" was written by Thomas Hood in honour of Mrs. Biddell, a poor widow and seamstress who sewed trousers and shirts in her home. Desperate to feed her starving infants, she pawned the clothing she had made, acquired a debt she could not pay, and was sent to the workhouse. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.