"Woodland sketches" is a suite of tone poems that have survived as MacDowell's best-known work. Written when the composer was reflecting and interpreting the natural beauty surrounding his Peterborough summer home. "At an Old Trysting Place" is MacDowell's effort to try and express the homesickness of a group of people who originated in Peterborough but had to travel west in search of fertile lands thus abandoning their birthplace. This work is MacDowell trying to capture the feeling of longing for home with its dreamy and soothing character.