This painting seems to be an amusing if rather sinister parody of the Civil War scenes from everyday life painted by the St John's Wood Clique and others of the time. These artists did tend to trivialize events in their
search of humour and originality and here Goodall has demonstrated this leaning. The boy dressed as a cavalier is trying to find the girl dressed as a puritan, in order to kiss her under the mistletoe which he is carrying,
but only the King Charles II spaniel can find her. Goodall has observed that in Puritan and Cavalier - themed paintings the Puritan is generally female and the Cavalier male; it is not clear why this should be so except
that male 17th-century Cavalier costume was particularly enticing to 19th-century artists. The models for the two children were Frederick William and Alice Frederica (or Rica), son and daughter of the artist. The screen
contains crewel work with a tree of life pattern; it is probably 19th century in date imitating 17th-century work.
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