3-003-730 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Coming Home by the Shortest Way" - drawn by J. Godwin, 1861. Engraving of a painting. 'Mr. Godwin has here produced a joyous little picture which it glads one's eyes to look at. A party of village children have been out gathering wood and wild flowers, and, shouting with glee, are making their way home by a short cut through a close-tangled copse. The eldest of the party carries master baby on his shoulders, whose head is smothered in flowers. On before struts the penultimate of the family, with a basket of flowers slung round his neck, and carrying a small bough as a parasol. Three others are playing a sort of game of hide and seek behind. Simple as this little production is, how true is it in feeling! How suggestive of Nature in the heyday of life, teeming with gladness in happy insouciance! We fancy we hear the hilarious voices echoing through the almost pathless wood, and sniff the fragrant air which hangs about the cool and shady seclusion, defiant of the broiling midsummer's sun, and feel the crisp herbage crunch and spring beneath our feet as we accompany the little rollicking party in their homeward ramble. The artist has realised this pleasant little episode with a free hand, and in a thoroughly congenial spirit'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.