Bathwell and Goodfelllow's "Rural Scenery" pattern is an essay on the joys of English family life in the country.  Three scenes decorate the sauce tureen.  The lid features a young girl basking in the sunshine and fresh air of an English meadow.  On the body, some un-heralded artist has captured the eternal fascination of boys with water, showing two lads who appear intent on something in a brook. The base employs a scene which would appear repeatedly throughout the nineteenth century: mother and children seated in a meadow, their comfortable home in the background--all in the healthful sunshine and air of the British countryside. 

Emphasizing the bounty of country life, Bathwell and Goodfellow wrap these country idylls in a border of scrollwork and pendants hung with flowers over a stippled light blue ground.  The extreme edges of each piece are finished with a neat band of tight scallop pattern.  

From the eighteenth century on,  the portrayal of the British family in nature was a favorite artistic motif. The famous Stubbs painting of Josiah Wedgwood and his family in a landscape setting is one example. However as the nineteenth century dawned, there was growing alarm over the mass industrialization overtaking England and its effect on both the countryside and the people.  Perhaps a trace of wistfulness is conveyed in the decoration chosen for this tureen.

The glaze flake shown on one end of the undertray appears like a paint spot on the solid blue ground.  The blue knop has also fired a bit flat compared to the handles.