Painted on panel and in the tones used by George Howard, landscape artist, this pastoral scene has much in common with the art of Burne-Jones's friend. The way in which the artist has embraced the textures that arise from paint being applied to a hard surface and the underlying colour of the wood are those which George Howard employed. Burne-Jones will have observed the artist at work on his visit to Naworth Castle in 1874. Howard was a member of the Etruscan School led by the Italian painter Giovanni Costa, whose intention was express the mood and sentiment of a landscape in which the figures participate. Such is the intention of this painting.