3-034-871 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"On the Track", by H. B. Roberts, 1871. Engraving of a painting. 'The stern-visaged men in the half-armour of the seventeenth century, steel breastplates and gorgets over their stout buff jerkins, and steel morions, instead of helmets with closed vizors, on their heads, may be taken for a party of Cromwell's troops in the English Civil War, detached upon a service of special moment this winter night. Perhaps they are going to intercept a Royalist convoy of provisions or treasure, to secure the person of some influential nobleman journeying to meet King Charles, or to surprise the mansion of a neighbouring knight...They are certainly intent upon real business, and will do it thoroughly if they come within reach of their object. The picture...is an effective composition of its kind, and shows the artist's powers both of conception and of execution, as the reader may judge from our Engraving. It reminds us of more than one incident described in Sir Walter Scott's historical romances and poems'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.