Title
[A military encampment and naval scene by a town and castle].
Publication details
[between 1770-1790]
Physical details
1 drawing : pen and black ink over pencil; sheet 31.4 x 58.5 cm
Description
A military encampment by a walled town; large ships on a harbour to the right; a castle nearby; large ships and boats on the sea in the middle ground; a rocky shoreline in the distance. Bears later inscription 'Plymouth' in black ink along lower edge.
Place
England
Additional information
This eighteenth century drawing is likely to be based either on a sixteenth century painting of a military encampment and naval scene or on an eighteenth century painting imagining a sixteenth century military event. The work bears similarities to the series published by James Basire I after Samuel Hieronymus Grimm which were based on murals at Cowdray House that commemorated Henry VIII's military campaigns. The treatment of the buildings and roofline is similar to that in 'Selective panorama of London and Southwark, with coronation procession of Edward VI advancing along Cheapside to St. Paul's Cathedral' by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm which was also a copy of a Cowdray House mural (the drawing by Grimm is dated 1785 and is held at the Society of Antiquaries, London and a version of the print by Basire after Grimm is at the British Museum 1881,1210.339). The view does not appear to depict Plymouth although it bears similarities to the coastline and topography at Fowey in Cornwall which the Spanish fleet passed during the Armada. While the location and event depicted cannot be identified, it is clear that the drawing is part of a tradition of the antiquarian depiction of military events in Britain.
Shelfmark
Maps K.Top.11.84.a.