The six books are, The Sofa, The Timepiece, The Garden, the Winter Evening, The Winter Morning Walk and The Winter Walk at Noon.published in 1785.

Cowper himself wrote, "A lady, fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the Author, and gave him the SOFA for a subject. He obeyed; and, having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and, pursuing the train of thought to which his situation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle which he at first intended, a serious affair – a Volume."

Westall was a prolific book illustrator - Scott, Goldsmith and Gray, Shakespeare and Milton as well as Cowper.