The Elopement: Pamela flying to the Coach, while Lady Davers sends Two of her Footmen...

An illustration for Richardson's 'Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded' pub. 1740'; a young lady runs to a carriage while a young man threatens their pursuers with his sword. Pamela flies to a coach, left, on a road beyond the garden wall of a house, at the right, from the window of which Lady Davers encourages two footmen to arrest her; they are prevented from doing so by a man who has drawn his sword. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761). This painting and its companion are much repainted, but newly restored survivors of Hayman's decorations for the supperboxes at the Vauxhall pleasure-grounds in London. Bought at the Vauxhall Gardens sale by the 1st Earl of Lonsdale in 1841, they were acquired for Sizergh at the Lowther Castle sale in 1947. Regarded as the first novel in English or the first modern novel. The story of a beautiful 15-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose country landowner master, Mr. B, makes unwanted advances towards her after the death of his mother. After attempting unsuccessfully to seduce and rape her, her virtue is eventually rewarded when he sincerely proposes an equitable marriage to her.