Scotland Forever!

Elizabeth Thompson painted the Scots Greys hurling themselves forward at Waterloo, a battle fought 66 years before she took up the subject in 1881. She had never seen combat, so to get the horses right she arranged to watch her husband's cavalry regiment at exercise and had them charge straight at her while she held her ground and studied the movement. By then she was among the most famous painters in Britain, a woman celebrated for battle scenes at the height of Victorian military pride. The picture catches the charge at its very start, the grey horses gathering speed with the front rank almost on top of the viewer. In the real charge the Greys lost about 200 men and even more horses, cut down after they broke the French line and rode too far.