’I used to keep my master’s hens’

Randolph Caldecott

1881

Coloured wood-engraving engraved by Edmund Evans

7¾ x 6 ¾ inches

Illustration in The Farmer’s Boy, 9.

This time the farmer’s boy is looking after the hens in another leisurely scene. Children, a baby, a blossoming tree and the multi-coloured fowl merge together to project an Edenic vision, a pleasant design to look at as the infant reader recites the nursery rhyme on the facing page.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke. [Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

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