The Skylark; 1850; Etching on chine coll? seventh or eighth state of eight; sheet: 14 7/16 x 10 5/8 in. (36.7 x 27 cm); Prints; Samuel Palmer (British; London 1805-1881 Redhill; Surrey); Samuel Palmer; one of the greatest British etchers; engaged throughout his career with the poetry of John Milton. This pastoral idyll - in which a man accompanied by a dog; pauses at a gate to watch a bird soar into the early-morning sky - relates to a passage in Milton's L'Allegro of 1645 (lines 40-44): 'To hear the lark begin his flight/ And singing startle the dull night;/ From his watch-towre in the skies/ Till the dappled dawn doth rise