Cameos from English History

Scenes from English history from Rollo the Norseman to the fall of Edward II, chosen for the moments that stay in a young mind: a king's oath, a siege, a betrayal, a coronation. Yonge wrote her cameos over many years for readers she expected to go on to the chroniclers themselves. She is a partisan of the twelfth century and does not pretend otherwise. Fifty-nine plates after painters including Turner and Maclise carry the same English scenes the text describes, from Trafalgar to Rouen and the fields near Gisors.