3-052-769 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Division of Labour, 1880. Engraving of '...a pretty girl and her happy lover, afloat in a skiff of sufficient stability, on the clear water of the Thames...each handling a light paddle of the pair-oared boat, and sitting beside each other upon its one rowing-seat, where they find the joint task is more of a pleasure than a trouble. We cannot all be young...[but] there is no excuse for grudging our sympathy to the more fortunate mortals, whose spring and summer time of life have been graced with such an innocent romance, leading, as we will hope, to mature prosperity and domestic peace. It seems likely that the boat...has been allowed to drift into one of those sequestered creeks, between the willow-growing "aits" or islets of the placid river, where a thick green fence of tall rushes on each side makes the most complete screen for these two young persons to converse in privacy, without fear of interruption. The watchful and faithful dog, keeping a sharp look-out in the stern, where he sits upon his master's coat, will be sure to give a warning bark at the approach of any other party; and we cannot doubt that the courtship is going on just now to their mutual satisfaction'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.