3-011-702 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Lord Riverdale's Repentance" [by William J. Stewart]: George rescuing his grandfather, drawn by A. Hunt, 1862. 'That hand was nearer to him at that moment than he dreamt. The thought of George so filled his mind as for a moment to exclude all consideration of his danger. He was recalled to it by a crashing blow upon the window, shattering it. His time had come, then. He turned to meet his death. The window was flung up then, and not death, but George Cowper, with hope of life and rescue, leaped into the room. The old man fell back. "Good Heaven!" he cried, "you here?"..."If you will be calm, Sir," [George] said, "no life need be lost"...He led him to the window and bade him look out. Some yards off the old Lord saw a projecting ledge of roof, reached from below by other similar ledges, upon which were gathered figures watching them. To this spot there ran beneath the window a narrow sloping ledge, not a dozen inches wide, upon which there did not seem purchase for a goat, much less a human foot. But by that perilous path, clinging to the frail ivy boughs above him, George Cowper had come to his aid'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.