The Martyr of the Solway
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Martyr of the Solway (c.1871) is a painting by John Everett Millais currently in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. It depicts the Scottish martyr Margaret Wilson.
Margaret Wilson and Margaret McLachlan, were condemned to death by drowning and were chained to stakes on the Solway Firth. Although at the last moment, choking on the salt water, Margaret Wilson was allowed to offer a prayer for the King, this was not good enough for her accusers, and she was forcibly thrust beneath the waves. It is said that, as the tide rose, she defiantly quoted from the psalms and the epistles and sang. After her drowning, witnesses described how her hair floated around her head like a halo in the clear water.
About 18 at the time of her death, Margaret Wilson was buried, together with her friend Margaret McLauchlan, in the churchyard of Wigtown.
