A Summer Day in Hyde Park. Oil on canvas. General view of the park with the north east corner of the Serpentine in the Summer. Among the figures shown are, from left to right: a gentleman reading a newspaper containing the latest report of the Indian Mutiny, a child in a perambulator, a soldier leaning over the back of a park bench and talking to the child's mother and a country couple. Exhausted tourists, can be seen seated left of centre, they have dropped their map of London. London's parks were believed to be essential places of resort for the health of city dwellers. They were called'the lungs of London'. In central London, the expanse of Hyde Park was especially popular for its walks and drives through wooded areas.
