Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament

An illustration to a ballad in Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), an important source for Rossetti and other Pre-Raphaelites. Described as 'a Scottish song', the ballad takes the form of a 'lament' by Lady Anne at having been deserted with her child by her husband. The style of the drawing and the form of the monogram indicate a date of circa 1846-7, that is to say a year or two before the formation of the Brotherhood.