This watercolour sketch is by the graphic artist George Cruikshank (1792-1878), the London-born son of the Scottish painter Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811). Cruikshank worked in his father's studio and was a talented artist from an early age. He became a prolific artist of political cartoons after 1808 but despite his success in this field, from the 1820s onwards he became more involved in book illustration. His best-known illustration was probably that for Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, first published in journal form in 1837.

The Ingoldsby Legends by Richard Harris Barham, a priest at the Chapel Royal, were first printed in 1837 as a regular series in Bentley's Miscellany and later in New Monthly Magazine, with illustrations by George Cruikshank and John Leech. They were a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry supposedly by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington manor, and proved so popular that they were compiled into books published in 1840 and 1843.