‘Then pass around the can, my boys,’ Circa 1916. One of Warne’s postcard reprints of Caldecott’s illustrations, originally engraved in the 1880s using coloured wood blocks by Edmund Evans (no.H6). 3¼ x 5 inches. Taken from The Fox Jumps Over the Parson’s Gate. Caldecott was a great huntsman, and this is one of his many celebrations of the blood sport. The characters represented here are very much ‘Old English’ types enjoying a can of ale, an act that identifies them as country gentlemen (their more urban – and urbane – contemporaries would have drunk wine, and certainly not shared their beverage). They are surrounded by other signs of their membership of the hunting fraternity, with two pictures showing horses along with a stuffed bird in a case; a comely maid looks on. This was essentially a version of what we could call ‘heritage England’ – a notion of innocent well-being in a rural setting, free of the pressures of everyday reality.[Click on image to enlarge it.]
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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.
Bibliography
Warne’s postcards, circa 1916.
Created 10 June 2026