French prisoners coming ashore at Portsmouth, June 1794

The present work was drawn in early June of 1794, in the aftermath of Lord Howe's successful direction of the British Fleet on the 'Glorious First of June' during the French Revolutionary Wars. Rowlandson had visited Portsmouth with Angelo, the fencing master: 'The morning following we saw, on the Gosport side, the landing of the French prisoners, numbers of different divisions filing off to the different stations allotted them. As for the wounded, previous to their quitting the boats, carts were placed alongside, and when filled, on the smack of the whip, were ordered to proceed. The sudden jolting made their groans appalling, and must have occasioned the wounds of many to produce an immediate haemorrhage...' (H. Angelo, Reminiscences, II., p.20).