3-021-026 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Wafted Away", by F. B. Barwell, from the winter exhibition of oil paintings at the Dudley Gallery, Piccadilly, 1868. Engraving of a painting, representing '...a parting from the old familiar faces at home, in hope to find new friends among strangers. Harmonising perfectly with the human interest of the subject is the excellently-rendered natural effect - the lovely, yet softly saddening, close of a summer's day; with the sun taking his leave through a vista of crimson and golden clouds that give fair promise for the morrow. The reader will understand that the incident here depicted is that of a country girl leaving her home, perhaps to seek her humble fortunes in a "place", perhaps to find a mate who will help this young bird to make a new nest. She goes as a passenger on board a Norwich "wherry", which has picked her up, somewhere, we believe, on the banks of the Yare, some distance above Yarmouth. The girl is obviously too much overcome with sorrow to give a last look at the old scenes and the loving friends lingering on the bank she has left; but the wherryman's wife, a kind, sympathising woman, waves a farewell for her, as the fast-sailing wherry sweeps into a fresh reach of the river'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.