The only drawing in Moore's oeuvre which bears the full date - the day on which Britain declared war on Germany. The faces of the figures in the drawing reflect the anxiety that pervaded the nation on the day war was declared. That morning Moore, his wife and Bernard Meadows had gone swimming below Shakespeare Cliff near Dover, the scene for the composition. Reluctant to begin any new carvings on account of the war. Moore turned his attention to drawing and did not return to sculpture until 1943.