When Knighton-Hammond returned to the Midlands from London in 1905 he settled in Youlgreave. We know he had a love of the Derbyshire Dales and appears to be out painting from nature at every opportunity. The apple trees in the Parson’s Orchard are in full blossom and ducks waddling around giving movement to the composition. The dry-stone wall divides the foreground from the background. The cottages with their smoking chimneys are silhouetted against the background hills of the Peak District depicted in an atmospheric blue.