Medium includes graphite and watercolour. A young man is shown seized by three other men of a naval impressment party outside a 'Rendezvous House' (i.e. for the Impress Service). Two women try to drag them off him, while in the foreground a third aids his fainting wife and distressed child : another man is dragged away in the background between two more of the gang, one brandishing a club. The image is a vivid example of a common stereotype. The Impress Service was essentially what is now called 'naval recruitment' and seamen most frequently volunteered to serve. It was only in wartime that they were seized for the purpose and a scene like this - essentially of what was called a 'hot press' - would only have happened at a point of emergency when men were desperately required. The gang here, in fact, may be seamen sent ashore from a particular ship to round up unwilling recruits - their dress certainly suggests so - rather than from that of the recruiting lieutenant normally based at a 'Rendezvous House'. At all times the Navy wanted seamen and it is a myth (much encouraged by images like this) that landsmen were also indiscriminately seized. In this case, however, the victim also appears from his dress to be probably a seaman.