Victorian gift books were collections of essays, short fiction, and poetry, usually lavishly illustrated, which were published towards the end of the year in time for the holiday season. This bold, full-page wood engraving was created for one such book, ‘Home Thoughts and Home Scenes’, a collection of poems by a group of female writers published in London in 1865. Designed by the painter and illustrator Arthur Boyd Houghton and engraved by the Dalziel Brothers, a leading firm of wood-engravers in London, this work illustrates the poem ‘A Sick Child’. In it, a group of siblings gather around their sick baby sister, at first worried that she might die, then comforted by the thought that they will all meet her again in Paradise.

The illustration vividly captures the anguish on the children’s faces, intensified by the intimate and yet dramatic effect of the candlelight. The addition of the doctor taking the pulse of the sick baby girl, a figure not mentioned in the poem, is a reminder of the progress of Victorian medicine. Indeed, the nineteenth century saw a series of scientific breakthroughs in both the diagnosis and cure of illness in Britain: the stethoscope was widely used by mid-century; newly improved microscopes allowed examination of micro-organisms; the introduction of antiseptic procedures in surgery led to the sharp fall of infections and deaths; and a series of Public Health Acts encompassing interventions in better housing, sewage and water supply helped prevent the spread of epidemic diseases like cholera.

previous owner: Witt, Robert (Sir)

Inscription: In image, recto: lower right corner, black ink: "AH". Sheet, recto: centre of lower margin, black print: "31".

Stamp: Sheet, recto: centre of lower margin, blue ink stamp: "HAMPSTEAD PUBLIC LIBRARIES / LOCAL COLLECTION. / H. J. CORNISH COLLECTION. / 1928."