"The Earth herself is adorning
This sweet May morning;
And the children are pulling on every side,
In a thousand valleys far and wide,
Fresh flowers."
"Intimations of Immortality."—Wordsworth.
By Birket Foster, R.W.S.
By permission of Messrs. George Routledge & Sons.
Birket Foster naturally spent much of his time in the country, often locating himself at farm houses, and being of a genial nature always became very friendly with the people. On one occasion an old farmer took the greatest interest in the work as it went on, in fact to the extent that the old boy seemed to feel that he had a sort of partnership in the production of the picture. Some time after this a friend of Foster's, who stayed at the same farm, found the old man most anxious to know all about Foster, but particularly as to how much money he had got for the picture "that we done down here." The friend said, "A hundred pounds at least." The old man was incredulous, in fact he would not believe it. When assured that such an amount was small for a picture by so clever and popular a man, he seemed unable to grasp it, saying, "Why, it would be like pickin' up sovereigns as if they was turnips or eggs; and if it was so, all I can say is, he must ha' sold it to a friend."
After the success of our volume Messrs. Routledge made a collection of engravings from Foster's drawings in their various books, for publication.
Here is an amusing letter from Foster on seeing this new work announced: