ABSTRACT
On 29 September 1914, there appeared in The Evening News one of the most momentous of documents relating to the legend of St George, the patron saint of England. This was Arthur Machen's brief tale The Bowmen, recounting how St George brought 'the ancient archers of Agincourt to the rescue of a modern British army during the retreat before the Germans at Mons' a 'few days after the battle'. Machen recounts how one soldier in the trenches recalled seeing the figure of St George in blue on plates in a restaurant, with the motto Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius - 'May St George be present' - and uttered the Latin phrase as he fired at the Germans. The importance of St George to artistic representation is attested if one glances at some well-known examples preceding the treatment by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
