Michael Kennedy suggests that they may have been retrieved from the unused material for a symphony celebrating General Gordon which Elgar had been working on since 1898.
Ernest Newman described Dream Children as "a couple of delicate little pastels for a small orchestra, inspired by an essay of Charles Lamb.
Lamb), entertaining some children with stories of their grandmother, finds them gradually disappear from his sight he is, indeed, only dreaming": Newman continues, "The two pieces are very short – 24 and 141 bars respectively.
[2] The orchestral score and parts were originally published by Joseph Williams Ltd (London) in 1902, and then in 1911 by Schott & Co with the title Enfants d'un Rêve and the translation below this "(Dream-Children)".
As with his earlier piece Salut d'Amour, Elgar agreed with the same publisher that the French title would sell better.