French Prisoners under Escort to Exeter Castle, Exeter, Devon

Rowlandson travelled extensively both in Britain and abroad, making annual tours of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. One of his friends, Matthew Mitchell, owned a country estate at Hengar near Bodmin, in Cornwall, which Rowlandson used as a West Country base.
It is not clear which historical incident is illustrated in the drawing. For a drawing depicting 'Bodmin Cornwall: French Prisoners on Parole' see J. Baskett and D. Snelgrove, The Drawings of Thomas Rowlandson in the Paul Mellon Collection, Connecticut, 1977, p. 15, pl. 15. Another view of Exeter by Rowlandson can be found in the Paul Mellon Collection, op.cit., p. 17, pl. 26, South Gate, Exeter.