The children imagine that it is a grand carriage and one of the girls sits proudly atop the heather holding a burdock leaf as a parasol. The painting is the companion work to 'The Downfall of Pride', also at Penrith Museum, where the sledge has overturned and the children have tumbled out, completing the moral narrative.

Provenance

James S Virtue, 1865; Private collection, 1879 (purchased at sale of Mr Virtue's pictures); Sotheby's, 1983; Private collection.