3-021-013 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The First Time of 'Asking,'" by W. Hemsley, in the Exhibition of the Society of British Artists, 1869. Engraving of a painting. '...its chief interest lies in the humour of the situation, and of the characters and expressions, which, though sufficiently developed, does not reach the point of irreverence. The simplicity of the betrothed rustics; the awkwardness of this first audacious avowal before the assembled village of their private love-making and their determination to take the awful step, reckless of all consequences, of being joined together in holy matrimony, are very amusingly expressed. Irresistibly droll is the gaping, dumb-foundered astonishment of the lover at suddenly hearing his name announced before all the world, and realising that he is now a hero of peculiar public interest; whilst equally pleasant is it to mark the mingled pride and blushing shamefacedness of his sweetheart, with her averted, downcast look, and nervous knotting of her handkerchief. Ah! it is for Lobbin and Lucy a moment of purest, supreme romance. For such an occasion well might Lobbin attire himself in his Sunday best...well might Lucy don the nattiest of bonnets and the neatest of bran-new cotton prints!' From "Illustrated London News", 1869.