This work depicts men carrying punt cushions down from the boathouse on the right to the riverside where others prepare boats for launching. Spencer also called this painting Slessers Going on River, and it is possible that the picture may depict one of the activities which Spencer participated in while he was staying with Sir Henry and Lady Slesser at their home, Cornerways in Bourne End, near Cookham during 1920.

Spencer later gave the painting to Gerald and Nora Summers, probably in the early 1930s. The couple had been Slade school contemporaries of Spencer and were also close friends of the artist Henry Lamb. Lamb and Spencer sometimes visited the Summers at their home in Ferndown, Dorset, and it was during one his visits that Spencer gave them this painting.
(see K. Bell, loc. cit)

The photograph shows Poppet John, the daughter of Augustus John, in the Summers's drawing room. Carrying Mattresses can be seen hanging on the wall behind her.