3-003-698 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Descent of the Danes", by Mr. Bell Scott, 1861. Engraving of a painting. One of '...a series of eight pictures by Mr. W. Bell Scott illustrative of the history of the English border now on view at the French Gallery...we see, through the mist of a summer's morning, the host of the single-sailed ships of the sea-kings coming dimly within view, rounding the point of Tynemouth, now, in our own days, surmounted by a monastic ruin and a white lighthouse. The boats from the "serpents" and "dragons," as the Danish ships were called, are already running ashore, filled with wild figures, who leap into the sea; the few Saxons hastily collecting for a resistance evidently hopeless. In the foreground a temporary fortification is being erected, up to which women with their children and valuables are crowding. Among these appears a priest carrying his candles, books, and other altar furniture. This composition displays great power of invention, and great skill in the concentration of much and various material within so limited a surface. The contrast between the elevated foreground and the distant vista of the sea below, studded with the ships and small boats of the invading force, is admirably conceived and most successfully realised'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.