His Only Pair

Grandma sews a patch on her grandson’s trousers

‘His Only Pair’ was the title of several Victorian sentimental paintings - usually depicting a poor boy waiting in some embarrassment while his trousers are patched by a grandfather or grandmother. Nakedness and poverty are the twin causes of his shame. Robert Paul’s film version makes this a comic situation by introducing a group of the boy's friends pointing and laughing through the window.

The scene is filmed against a cottage interior set, with a window and a practical door, through which the friends enter. The ensuing scrap is stopped short by granny shooing them all out of the door.