This paper examines the complicated circumstances surrounding the very slow production of The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, the great masterpiece of Charles Alfred Stothard, FSA, and the various reasons why it took twenty-one years to complete. The methods and techniques Stothard adopted to produce his celebrated etchings and the evolution of his artistic style are first analysed, as is the role played by Thomas Kerrich, FSA, in the project. Next, this paper investigates the severe problems facing Stothard's young widow, Anna Eliza, and his brother-in-law, Alfred Kempe, FSA, as they tried to bring the project to a conclusion, and the reasons why it was necessary to employ four different etchers to produce the remaining plates from Stothard's original drawings. Anna Eliza's recording of Charles Stothard's achievements, her scrupulous preservation of his drawings and her poignant publication of his life story are shown to have consolidated and enhanced his posthumous reputation as perhaps the finest antiquarian artist ever to depict medieval monumental sculpture.