Richmond was especially aware of previous civilisations in the landscapes he painted; it was so in the Roman Campagna, in Umbria and in Egypt, through which he travelled in his 'Etruscan' days painting with Costa, Leighton, Matthew Ridley Corbet, and George Howard, and he would have been thoroughly aware of Arthurian legend here in this famous sea-cave at Tintagel in Cornwall, thought to have been the seat of the legendary King Arthur. Poynter used this cave as the setting for his painting The Cave of the Storm Nymphs.