The execution of James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose; Montrose with the hangman upon a ladder leaning against the gallows; various figures in attendance; on the right, a figure being beheaded with an axe; Edinburgh in the background. Illustration to Jacob van Oort's "Ontlokene roose, bloeyende distel-bloem, en hersnaerde harp"
A scene in London, possibly near St Martin's-in-the-Fields, with a musician at an open window holding his ears against the noise of the street; a ballad-seller chants while her baby cries, a milkmaid and other street-traders cry their wares, one small boy plays a drum while another urinates under the startled gaze of a small girl who holds a rattle, an itinerant oboist plays, a knife-grinder sharpens a cleaver, and so on. In this state the horse on the extreme right is black (white in the earlier state), the boy's slate trailing on the ground was only half shaded in the earlier state, but is now darkened.
The melody for Roddy McCorley was later used in the song, Sean South from Garryowen, which tells the story of a failed IRA attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary Barracks in County Fermanagh in 1957.
