Queen Victoria, seated in an armchair by an open fire, day-dreaming about illustrious men of her reign. Colour lithograph by Tom Merry, 1887.

Top row: Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), William Charles Macready, J.M.W.Turner (1775-1851), Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), Charles William de la Poer Beresford, Baron Beresford (1846-1919), Edward White Benson, (1829-1896), Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). Second row: Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), John Russell, Earl Russell (1792-1878), John Bright, (1811-1889), Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), Henry Brougham, Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868). Third row: Garnet Wolseley, Viscount Wolseley (1833-1913), Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865), Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881), Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903), HenryThomas Cockburn, Lord Cockburn (1779-1854). Foreground: Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), Charles Dickens (1812-1870), and Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson (1809-1892). William Ewart Gladstone is not present