William and Mary Howitt by George Frampton

Frampton's work is perhaps the most successful in the series representing as it does an intimate double portrait of the two poets as they read from an open book. One of the sculptor's earliest letters to Wallis in November 1900 survives and represents an important accompaniment to the finished work: it includes a superbly spontaneous sketch of his proposal, which he described 'as a bold relief.'

It would appear that Frampton's piece was instrumental in the eventual siting of the busts. A note accompanying the design urged that 'it be placed within the recession of the old bastion in the drive of the castle grounds' to give it prominence and ensure it would always be seen in direct light (the latter deemed an important consideration for a bas-relief). It was indeed under the colonnade on the main, west façade of the castle that the sculptures were sited and where they still remain.

The bust of the Howitts was, like Toft's work, supported on a silver granite pedestal from Glasgow. The bronze was cast by the founders 'Hollinshead of Burton', based at Thames Ditton. Both the Frampton portrait and Oliver Sheppard's bust of Henry Kirke White were in place by June 1902.