"Youth is full of sport Age's breath is short"

The Art Journal (op. cit.) described the present work as a 'closely studied bit of nature', showing 'a merry group of children playing in a field of wild flowers, while, by way of contrast, a poor old woman in the foreground drags wearily behind her for firewood a great withered tree-branch'.

F.G. Stephens in the Athenaeum (op. cit.) was also complimentary declaring himself 'charmed' by such a 'capital and tasteful work'.