[The Cowham child may be said to be an institution, and there are few, surely, who are not 
acquainted with that droll little creature with the odd-shaped legs, short skirts, fluffy hair, and most 
innocent of expressions which Hilda Cowham — in private life Mrs. Lander — has made so popular. As a 
child Hilda Cowham used to draw quaint children, and she was really the first woman to take up black- 
and-white illustrating, studying first at the Wimbledon and Lambeth Schools of A t. Her work attracted 
much attention, and commissions poured in from the editors of many periodicals. She discovered that her 
forte lay in child-studies, and in this interesting article she tells some amusing stories of children she has 
met. Incidentally, the artist gives a few facts regarding her methods of work.] 
LOVE watching children, if 
they are interesting, and I 
never miss an opportunity of 
overhearing their prattle and 
conversation. But I don’t 
like all children. I like those 
who are naturally interesting, 
rather than the precocious youngster. There 
are some children' who are grown up beyond 
their years, who seem to assume airs and 
habits which are quite out of keeping with 
their age. On the other hand, there are 
children who are a delight to the artistic eye, 
as well as to the mind, and it is such children 
w r ho provide me with the best material for 
my child studies. 
I might mention in the first place, that I 
never use a model, and that it is by quietly 
studying children when they are quite unaware 
of my observation that I obtain my best 
impressions. I may make it rough sketch, 
but that is chiefly to impress it on my memory, 
and it often happens that I use the figure of 
a child I have seen months afterwards, and 
perhaps am at a loss to know, for the moment, 
where the idea came from. Practically 
speaking, all my finished work is done from 
imagination or memory, and the quicker I 
work the better effect I often obtain. 
There is one curious fact about many of 
my pictures which shows how greatly we are 
influenced by early associations. I often find 
it difficult, when making a study of a child 
out of doors, not to introduce a little bit of 
Margate as a background. I suppose that 
is because I went to Margate as a child, and 
took a fancy to it. I have not been there 
for years, but there used to be a little wooden 
