Marble full length statue of a young woman, standing facing her left. She wears a dress covered by a long shawl held by clasp on her left shoulder. In left hand she holds an oar; her right hand to her ear. At her feet is a carved lilypad in flower in pool.

Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake, dated 1810, became the source of inspiration for this full length statue by the sculptor Benjamin Edward Spence. Set in sixteenth century Scotland and based on a passionate and tragic love story it reflects the period's interest in Scottish subjects with nationalistic associations.

The main female character in Scott’s poem, Ellen Douglas, is depicted standing and facing left. Her dress is covered by a long shawl held by a clasp on her left shoulder. In the left hand she holds an oar and she raises her right hand next to her ear. The artist has chosen to represent a passage from the first Canto of Scott’s poem and the instant when Ellen Douglass hears the call for help of a lost huntsman whom she rescues on her boat. After the rescue, she offers him food and shelter for the night, unaware that he is in fact James Fitz-James, illegitimate son of James II, who had become her father’s enemy as a result from an unfair political plot.

The artist, Benjamin Edward Spence, belongs to the group of English sculptors who went to live and work in Rome during the nineteenth century. A pupil of the famous sculptor Gibson, Spence trained in the neo-classical style but unlike most of his contemporaries he often chose modern subjects for his compositions instead of recurring to stories and themes from classical mythology.

The statue was commissioned as a pendant for Spence’s statue of Highland Mary, which like this one is inspired on a popularised Scottish subject. It was given by Queen Victoria as a birthday present to her husband the Prince Consort on 26 August 1861.