This drawing comes from a sketchbook, other pages of which are watermarked 'J. WHATMAN TURKEY MILLS 1824', used by Constable on a holiday at his brother and sister's home at Flatford Mill. He took his two eldest children, John Charles and Maria, and seems to have arrived there on 2 October 1827, staying for about a fortnight. Other drawings done on this visit are Reynolds nos. 27.12-38, pls. 641-66. and seem to show a particular degree of accomplishment and relaxation as a result of the family situation. As Constable had to keep an eye on his children most of the drawings were done on the banks of the Stour, and it has been suggested by Reynolds that the figure in this particular drawing is Constable's eldest brother Golding, who was a particularly accomplished marksman. (See also, for this series, I. Fleming-Williams, Constable: Landscape Watercolours and Drawings, 1976, p.94, and L. Parris and I. Fleming-Williams, Constable, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, 1991, p.466 under no.315.)