 The painting depicts Mrs Mailsetter in an admonishing pose and Jenny Caxon, the recipient of a love letter from her older beau, Lieutenant Richard Taffril, who was away at sea.An engraving by Charles Rolls of the painting and the poem were published side-by-side in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrapbook for 1833 (London, UK Fisher Jackson).An engraving made of this painting also references the title as being "Maternal Solicitude" and an earlier reference in the Literary Souvenir for 1828 gives descriptions of the collection of Alaric Alexander Watts with an alternative title of "Maternal Advice".