Francis Grosse was the son of an immigrant jeweller from Switzerland and a signifcant part of his adult life was spent in uniform initially in the army and later in the militia.

Always a keen artist, between 1772 and 1787 Grose published a series of works titled The Antiquities of England and Wales and his prodigeous output of more than a thousand illustrative plates the greatest collection of illustrations produced in the eighteenth century, the engraving was made by Samuel Sparrow. In 1809 these works were collected into an 8 volume set titled The Antiquities of England and Wales (New Edition) with the illustration appearing between pages 108 and 109.

The picture was reworked and published in The Modern Universal British Traveller and was also sold as a coloured print. There are anglers in both pictures although the boat is not present in the coloured print where a strolling couple have been substituted - although to me the scale of the couple does not match the rest of the picture suggesting it is the later image.