3-053-615 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Tired Attendant", by F. Huard, in the exhibition of the Society of British Artists, 1873. 'This picture, by Mr. F. Huard, carries us back to the romantic days of the fifteenth century. The scene is the dining-hall of some old baronial castle. There has been feast and revelry in the hall - feast and revelry which began probably at noon, the old dinner hour - and has been continued till night, perhaps far on into night, for we know not how long that "tired attendant" has been napping. By the inquiring look of the faithful, sagacious hound, and by the few faint embers on the hearth, which, in their expiring flicker, make the old hall frown so desolately, and the fire-dogs' grin doubly grotesque, we should say that the poor page has been long sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. During all those hours he has been dancing attendance on his mistress; during all those hours he has been singing, to enliven the carousing company, ditties of love and war and wine, and twanging accompaniments thereto; we see his lute and illuminated music-books lying by his side'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.