Leaving Home was engraved by Edward Goodall and published as an illustration to Part I of a long poem, ‘The Pleasures of Memory’ in the 1834 edition of Rogers’s
Poems.
1 The vignette appears as a complement to the following description:
The adventurous boy, that asks his little share,
And hies from home with many a gossip’s prayer,
Turns on the neighbouring hill, once more to see
The dear abode of peace and privacy;
And as he turns, the thatch among the trees,
The smoke’s blue wreaths ascending with the breeze,
The village-common spotted white with sheep,
The church-yard yews round which his fathers sleep;
All rouse Reflection’s sadly-pleasing train,
And oft he looks and weeps, and looks again.
(Poems, p.16)
In contrast to many of Turner’s illustrations to Rogers’s verses, Leaving Home offers an unusually direct interpretation of the poet’s words. Here we see the young adventurer gazing at the distant thatched roofs and church spire of his village. The soft pastel palette and golden lighting of Turner’s scene complement the nostalgic tone of Rogers’s description.
The pencilled lines and numbers framing the vignette would have been made by the engraver during the process of squaring-up the design for reduction.
