Figure 1.--Here we have a fascinating scene from a one room rural school. There are two school mistrisses. We would guess that this painting is British, perhaps Welsh. I am not sure about the date, but would guess about the 1860s.

Here we have a fascinating scene from a one room rural school. There are two school mistrisses. We would guess that this painting is British, perhaps Welsh. I am not sure about the date, but would guess about the 1860s. Many of the children were wearing tams, both boys and girls. A lot of the children also wear pinafpres. The reason we think that this might be Welsh is that the fancy white bonnet that one of the girls wears. A HBC reader, however, does mot believe that it is a Welsh bonnet. He points us to a Welsh site which gives an idea of traditional Welsh costume. He reports, I believe that the boys caps are more of a clue, they look like Scottish tams to me." The boys seem to be mostly wearing kneepants. We are not positive if the child by the window wearing a pinafore is a boy or girl. The boy at the left wears kneepants. We are not sure why he is so unhappy. Notice that boys and girls are being educated together.

Created: March 12, 2003
Last updated: March 30, 2003