Like Lucas's well-known picture of Sir Francis Drake refusing to abandon his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe, even though the Spanish Armada is in sight, the present work has an Armada theme. Royal Academy Notes described it as 'a stirring scene of the period, when all England was roused to arms against the Armada. Here, on the quay at Yarmouth, the mayor, with his furred and scarlet robes of office, and collar and chain, is reading Elizabeth's proclamation bareheaded. He is attended by a determined-looking standard-bearer, upraising the ensign of the Tudor lions passant, and the French fleur-de-lys. His drummer-boys stand before him in red tunics, blazoned with the rose and crown. Halberdiers and pikemen throng around'. According to Allan Fea (loc.cit), the picture is 'a fine specimen of the artist's power as a colourist. Conspicuous in the foreground lies a goodly haul of fish fresh from the sea, sparkling with prismatic colours and as wet and slippery as ever fish appeared upon canvas, for to be accurate the painter purchased the load fresh from a fishing-smack and painted it on the spot.'

The picture comes from the famous collection of George McCulloch, a Scottish mining engineer who made a fortune in Australia and settled at 184 Queen's Gate, Kensington. Among well over three hundred paintings, drawings and sculptures, he owned masterpieces by Leighton, Millais, Albert Moore, Burne-Jones and Bastien-Lepage, as well as examples of Dicksee, Gotch, Waterhouse, Abbey, Bourguereau, Thaulow, Harpignies and others. A three-day sale was held at Christie's after his death.