"Like The Carpenter's Shop Hunt's picture can be directly related to Tractarian controversies. The fierce "No Popery" riots were largely caused by the surplices and other robes worn by the High Church clergy. At Exeter, for example, on 5th November 1848 a Guy was burnt wearing a surplice, cassock and stole. In Hunt's picture two fully robed missionaries are pursued by a mob of Druids" ("The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Anglican High Church," 295).
Last modified December 2001