A couple in 18th-century costume stand in a Scottish woodland setting looking past the spectator. The towering backdrop is formed of a cascading brook on the left and almost vertical, overgrown rocks. The lady wears a tartan shawl and leans on the man's left arm.

The subject is taken from Sir Walter Scott's novel 'The Bride of Lammermoor' where Edgar, Master of Ravenswood, has just rescued Lucy Ashton from a wild bull. Lucy is the daughter of his enemy, but she, unaware of his identity, is surprised at his cold manner. The artist's model for Ravenswood perfectly fitted Scott's description: 'A monteso cap and a black feather drooped over the wearer's brow, and partly concealed his features which, so far as seen were dark, regular and full of majestic though somewhat sullen expression.'

Millais, Holman Hunt and Rossetti had formed the revolutionary Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Millais was the first to return to a conventional, academic realism, becoming an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853. He later turned to more sentimental and popular subjects with immense success.