It depicts a scene in an English country lane, where a child holds open a
gate for a passer-by on horseback. It has been suggested that the traveller, with only his shadow visible could be the local
landowner, with the salute the boy is giving him adding a humorous touch to the scene. One of the better known paintings of Collins, the father of the writer
Wilkie Collins, it was displayed at the
Royal Academy Exhibition of 1832 at
Somerset House in
London. It was acquired by the
Duke of Devonshire for his
Derbyshire country estate Chatsworth House. A smaller replica version was commissioned the following year by the
art collector John Sheepshanks who donated it in 1857 to the
Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the
Sheepshanks Gift. ==References==