Riverside Capers

The animals featured in this design were all originally painted by the children’s illustrator Cecil Aldin. A founding member of the London Sketch Club, Aldin was known for his cartoonish animal depictions, and was published alongside literary works by Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, amongst others.

A children’s bedroom at Wightwick Manor in the West Midlands features a frieze which includes several of Aldin’s farm animals, including a mother hen with her chicks and a playful line of running ducks.