Betws-y-coed is a village in the Conwy Valley in Snowdonia. It became both an artist's colony and a favourite tourist spot: Cox and other artists lived and worked there from the 1840s. It also offered remarkable scenery and the fascination of Welsh history: it was supposedly near the site of the massacre of the bards by King Edward I.

Cox's view shows the evening funeral of a relative of the landlord of the inn he stayed in. It is an image of simple piety in a protective landscape with a chapel surrounded by yew trees at its heart.