Although undated this drawing entitled 'View of churches in Rome' was probably done by Matilda Rose on the same trip to Italy as other drawings by Matilda Rose in this collection which would give it a date of around April 1873. Children of upper middle class English families were often sent on trips around Italy in the 19th century to learn about art and practice sketching.

It is signed by the artist and shows the Janiculan Hill on the right-hand side.

Rose, as she was known to the family, was John and Margaret's 10th child. This is one of a series of drawings she, alongside her brothers and sisters, would have done as part of her artistic education.

The Herschel daughters, and the sons before they went away to school, received a very intensive education at home with lessons from their mother, their father, a series of governesses and a number of specialist outside tutors. Rose spent much of her adult life in India looking after her brothers William and John and later marrying a friend of her brother's William Waterfield.