In 1858 Hayllar was living in Mecklenburgh Square, London, next to Coram's Fields, where this picture was probably painted. He often exhibited pictures of local characters at this time. This picture was first owned by Charles Wentworth Wass, an art dealer who went bankrupt with his art dealership in in Burlington Street this same year, 1858, but then became Superintendent of the Crystal Palace Picture Gallery.

Painted onto a panel with a white ground in the Pre-Raphaelite manner (Hayllar was the same age as Millais and they studied at the RA schools at the same time).