3-015-951 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Peregrine Rescuing Emilia From The Inn Fire, c1786. "From the noticeboard we find the Dover, Deal, Margate and Canterbury Coaches are advertised to set out from the caravansary in question. The strangers are rudely disturbed, while the flames are lapping the old building and serpentining their way round the flammable wooden balconies. The entire population of the building has fled into the coach yard - men and women in various (and amusing) states of dress and undress abound - fire roars from the windows at upper left. A sufferer from gout is being conveyed in a wheelbarrow out of the imminent danger of being roasted alive.an antiquated husband is holding a ladder for the escape of his pretty wife; the curmudgeon is furious that the personal attractions of his better half should be thus displayed to the less privileged males around, who are assisting her delicate descent. The dangers of the fire are increased by the reckless impulse characteristic of similar casualties, in which blazing objects are hurled out of the window, spreading the flames to places which have hitherto escaped ignition. Mirrors and tablets, sheets and other objects, are sent flying from the upper galleries on to the heads of the scared travellers below."