Lot Essay
The present picture would appear to be an illustration to a scene at the beginning of Chapter 24 in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, published in 1766. While the vicar and his family are sitting at their favourite retreat near their house, by a hedge of hawthorn and honeysuckle, the daughter Olivia is singing 'When lovely woman stoops to folly'. However, mid-song she is alarmed to see Mr Thornhill, the local squire who has betrayed her, and his coach in the distance.