Before leaving for the Continent for the best part of a year on the proceeds of a picture sale, Brett painted this watercolour at Norbury Park, Surrey, in April 1861, in the valley below Box Hill, near to where he had painted The Stonebreaker in 1857. It describes ‘one of those sunny spring days when all the details of the landscape are crisp and fresh, with delicately handled trees just coming into leaf and casting long shadows on the newly-sown fields. Its mood of expectation perfectly matches what we may assume were his own feelings at the start of a new phase in his life.’ Upon his return from his travels he painted an oil, Norbury on the Mole, in 1862. 

Thanks to Christiana Payne and Charles Brett.