National Galleries of Scotland

This scene of Edinburgh street life in 1909 shows children at play in a game of `Pitch and Toss?, played by tossing up a coin and calling `heads? or `tails?. Such urchin-like children, bare-foot and unkempt, would have been a familiar sight in Edinburgh or Glasgow. The saying `to pitch and toss with something?, or to be careless or trust one?s luck, seems to apply to these children who, despite their poor circumstances, display a sense of vigour and self-confidence. The children are skilfully grouped into a composition that is framed by the shop window of a bakery. The advert for Bermaline Bread, above the name of the shopkeeper, is for a type of brown bread made from malted meal flour that was popular in Scotland during the early twentieth century.