A print after the eight-foot-long painting of the same title, exhibited by the artist at the Royal Academy in 1888. This had the accompanying inscription:

‘Nelson leaving England for the last time. ‘On the 14th September, 1805, Nelson embarked at Portsmouth from the beach, where the bathing machines were placed, instead of the usual landing place, to elude the populace; but a crowd collected in his train, pressing forward to obtain a sight of him. He said ‘I had their huzzas before; I have their hearts now’. The crowd pressed forward to shake hands with him, when he expressed regret that, having one hand only, he could not do so with all, etc.’

The print anticipates the centenary commemoration of Nelson’s death in 1905. He is shown standing in the ship’s boat close to a beach, holding his arm out to the crowd who are wading in the water to bid him farewell. In a gesture of patriotism, the Union flag is draped around him in the boat. Sailors seated in this hold their oars upright and face towards Nelson in the stern. Another officer stands near him raising his hat in salute. The skyline of Portsmouth can be seen in the distance.

Eyre Crowe, a painter of historical and domestic genre subjects, and of portraits, was a cousin of the novelist William Thackeray. As a painter he was a pupil of Paul Delaroche and a close friend of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Acting as Thackeray's secretary, he joined his cousin on a lecture tour of the United States in 1852. A founder member of the Arts Club, he also exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1846 and was elected A.R.A. in 1881. This image was reproduced in several publications such as the ‘October Monthly’ and the ‘Art Journal’, May 1904. It was also presented as a free copy with no. 675 of ‘Chums’, a periodical paper founded by Cassell & Co. in 1892. This was aimed at boys and advocated honour, middle-class values and high morality through adventure stories. Nelson was thus presented as their perfect exemplar, demonstrating the triumph of heroism and goodness over the enemy.