is embraced by an officer whose figure is dwarfed by comparison
with the monster negress. A placard posted on the walls of the
fortification, where these extraordinary _Land Stores_ are supposed to
be lodged, announces 'Voluntary subscription for a soldier's widow; the
smallest donations will be gratefully received,' &c.
_April 2, 1812._ _The Chamber of Genius._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1
James Street.
Want is the scorn of every wealthy fool,
And genius in rags is turned to ridicule.--_Vide 'Satirist.'_
The apartment of an enthusiastic genius, whose ambitions seem to
have taken various forms of expression. Music, painting, sculpture,
literature, chemistry, and other arts and sciences seem to have
occupied his attention by turns, and instruments suggestive of the
respective pursuits are muddled up with domestic details incidental to
the confinement of a wife and family to one solitary chamber, together
with the utensils of cookery, besides the food itself. The genius
has left his rest under the impulse of an inspiration; he has an old
nightcap worn over his wig, and is still in his night-shirt, with
down-at-heel slipper on one foot, and a ragged stocking on the other.
He is seated, in an attitude expressive of sudden exaltation before
an easel which bears the canvas he is filling out with rapid energy;
his left hand grasps a pen, and a black cat in demanding attention has
fixed her claws in his unclad limbs; but the artist is so absorbed in
his subject as to be unconscious of pain; miscellaneous litter, a bust,
a palette, and a sheaf of brushes, paint-pots, a still and furnace,
books, scales, syringes, a fiddle, and a post horn are scattered
behind the easel. The female companion of this genius is tranquilly
sleeping in an easy attitude through all the confusion; on the table
by the bedstead (on which her husband's garments are displayed) is
a coffee-pot and some suggestions of breakfast; an unclad infant is
leaning over the table, and pouring gin into a wineglass. Another
semiclad child is seated on a tub before a blazing fire, amusing
herself with the bellows, and is in danger from a steaming kettle and
a red-hot poker. Food, knives, forks, plates, and a pewter quart-pot
are at the artist's feet; he has just kicked over a large porringer of
milk, and is heedless of the mischief. Lamps, caudle-boats, strings of
candles, and bunches of onions are the decorations of the chimneypiece;
ragged clothes and unmended stockings are hanging over a rope stretched
across the chamber; on the wall is hung a smart three-cornered hat and
a sword by the side of pictures of 'Aerostation' and the portraits of a
ballet-dancer and 'Peter Tester.'
Rowlandson has put his own name to the print as the 'inventor;' the
satire is very unsparing, and the squalor he has attributed to his
professional brother is of the direst and most ludicrous description,
but the figure of the painter is marked with vigorous characteristics,
and the outline of the face which he has bestowed on his erratic
genius, designedly or not, bears a suggestive resemblance to his own
strongly-defined features.
_April 4, 1812._ _In the Dog Days._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James
Street, Adelphi.
Now the weather's sultry grown,
Sweating late and early.
Better far to lay alone--
Oh! we swelter rarely!
The representation of an extravagantly corpulent couple, whose rest
is apparently fitful; the lines attached to the plate, which is not
remarkable for refinement, form its best description.
_April 12, 1812._ _The Ducking Stool._ Republished. (See April 12,
1803.)
[Illustration: ITALIAN PICTURE-DEALERS HUMBUGGING MY LORD ANGLAISE.]
_May 30, 1812._ _Italian Picture Dealers Humbugging my Lord Anglaise._
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.--'Milord'
is a very dandified young sprig of nobility, who is an evident
_macaroni_, with the ambition to shine as a man of taste. A 'foreign
nobleman'--that is to say, according to English views at the period--a
'speculative Count,' who is very splendid in exterior, is evidently
a confederate of his countryman, the _Italian picture dealer_, and
has accompanied the noble incipient collector as a decoy to puff
the wares, and if need be to offer fictitious sums in opposition
to 'Milord' and spur his enthusiasm for the fine arts, which are
respectably represented around, as far as good names go. A sensuous
Magdalen, attributed to Guido, is exciting the admiration of the party
and employing the wily dealer's eloquence. Around are supposititious
examples of Rubens, Carracci, Titian, Teniers, Salvator Rosa, and other
'undoubted originals,' the major part of which in all probability owe
their well-disguised paternity to the versatile 'Van Daub.'
[Illustration: A BRACE OF BLACKGUARDS.]
_May 30, 1812._ _A Brace of Blackguards._ Published by T. Rowlandson,
St. James Street, Adelphi.--It has been mentioned in respect to this
eccentric production that the figures of the two gentlemen to whom
this dubious compliment is rendered are intended to represent those of
Rowlandson, the caricaturist, in the boxing attitude, and his friend
George Morland, the painter, seated in the chair.
[Illustration: RACING.]
_June 4, 1812._ _Broad Grins, or a Black Joke._ Published by T.
Tegg.--A clerical-looking gentleman is thrown into consternation at
the interesting condition of a rustic female, who is standing beneath
a board announcing 'Man-traps laid in these grounds.' The head of a
black footman peering through a hole in the garden-wall indicates the
true source of the 'Black Joke.'
_July 14, 1812._ _Miseries of London. Watermen. Oars? Sculls?_
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.--Entering upon any
of the bridges of London or any of the passages leading to the Thames,
being assailed by a group of watermen, holding up their hands and
bawling out 'Oars? Sculls, sculls? Oars, oars?'
[Illustration: MISERIES OF LONDON. 'Oars? Sculls, sculls? Oars, oars?']
1812 (?). _Racing._ Published by T. Tegg (158).
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _Glow Worms._ (See 1805.) Published by T.
Rowlandson, 1 St. James Street, Adelphi.
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _Muck Worms._ (See 1800.)
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _The Rivals._
_July 15, 1812._ _A Seaman's Wife's Reckoning._ Published by T. Tegg
(275), Woodward delin., Rowlandson sculp.--An old salt, with his dog
at his elbow, is seated beside his blooming daughter-in-law, a pretty
young mother, dandling a fine infant; the lady is using her eloquence
and trying to flatter this obdurate relative into confidence in her
story. The experienced mariner is declaring, 'Why, d'ye see, I am
an old seaman, and not easily imposed upon. I say that can't be my
son Jack's child. Why, he has not been married but three months, and
during that time he has been at sea--the thing is impossible! You may
as well tell me that my ship Nancy goes nine knots an hour in a dead
calm. And now I look again it's the very picture of Peter Wilkins, the
soap-boiler.'
The fair object of suspicion is by no means confounded at this logical
deduction. 'My dear father-in-law, I'll make it out very easily--Jack
has been married to me three months,--very well,--I have been with
child three months,--which makes _six_,--then he has been at sea three
months, has not he?--and that just makes up the _nine_!'
The fortunate husband, who sports a new rig-out--with a bright bandanna
round his neck, and his pipe stuck in the band of his hat--is lurching
into the apartment with a sea-roll. He is quite satisfied with his
wife's arithmetic, and is arguing on the side of his tender partner:
'Father, father, don't be too hard upon Poll; I know something about
the logbook myself, and dash me but she has kept her reckoning like a
true seaman's wife!'
_July 15, 1812._ _The Secret History of Crim Con._ Plate 1. Published
by T. Tegg (161).
_July 15, 1812._ _The Secret History of Crim Con._ Plate 2. Published
by T. Tegg (161).
_August 29, 1812._ _Setting out for Margate._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg (166).--A stout citizen, smartly clad,
with his wife, whose apparel is still more festive, are setting out
upon a holiday excursion. The heads of two geese are hanging over the
coat-tails of the cockney traveller: 'Why, my dove, I am loaded with
provisions, like a tilt-cart on a fair-day, and my pockets stick out
just as if I was just returned from a City feast.' The correct partner
of his joys is responding, 'Don't be so _wulgar_, Mr. Dripping; you
are now going among genteel folks, and must behave yourself. We shall
want all the _wickalls_ on the _woyage_, depend upon it. Bless me, how
_varm_ it is! I am all over in a muck!' To them enters their foreman:
'An' please you, master and missis, the sailor-man has sent word as how
the _wessel_ is ready to swim!'
_August 30, 1812._ _The Sweet Pea._ Published by H. Humphrey, 27 St.
James's Street.
_October 1, 1812._ _Refinement of Language._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg (171).--Six subjects, illustrating the
results of the advance of genteel ideas and the introduction of a
new-fashioned system of refining on everything. A ragged match-seller
is elevated into a 'timber merchant.' A postman becomes a 'man of
letters.' A gardener is raised to a 'Master of the Mint.' A Jew hawker,
who cries, 'Any old clothes to shell?' is changed to a 'merchant
tailor.' A sexton, pressing down the mould on a grave, is translated
into 'a banker;' and a poulterer easily becomes a 'Turkey merchant.'
1812. _Bitter Fare, or Sweeps Regaling._--As in the preceding
caricature the date of this plate has been altered; it was probably
published in 1802, and re-issued later, a common occurrence with
Rowlandson's prints. _Bitter Fare, or Sweeps Regaling_, was, it seems
likely, designed as a companion to _Love and Dust_ (1792, &c.), and
it partakes of the same ragged inspiration. In the hovel tenanted
by the somewhat undesirable 'Chummey family' smoke is the prevalent
element; the sooty company, sufficiently black and begrimed in
their own persons, seem perfectly in their element before a smoking
fireplace--as they are reposing luxuriously on sacks of soot. The heads
of the family are amiably sharing their enjoyments, drinking beer
from a pewter measure, and smoking long clay pipes; the sweeper lads,
but for a coat of soot comparatively unclad, are revelling amidst the
cinders on the hearth, divided between the congenial relaxations of
eating porridge and tormenting an unfortunate cat. Brushes, shovels,
and the professional belongings of chimney-sweeping are scattered
about; the only article of fancy admitted into the establishment is a
blackbird, which is possibly present on the ground that its hue offers
a resemblance to the general complexion.
_October 12, 1812._ _Raising the Wind._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1
James Street, Adelphi.
When noblemen have lost racehorse, and all their rhino spent,
Then little Isaac draws the bond and lends for cent. per cent.
[Illustration: RAISING THE WIND.]
Rowlandson's print introduces the nobleman at the precise moment his
affairs need 'patching up,' for 'mended' he never can be after he
has put himself into the spider-like clutches of plausible Isaac and
his 'friend in the City.' The 'little Jew broker' has brought a rich
usurer of his tribe, and between them his lordship's career of folly
will be swiftly run. All the ready-money is gone, and the racing stud
has followed it; but the 'road to ruin' is only just opening up. The
spendthrift is a comparative beginner; the next step is raising money
on his _title deeds_, which are undergoing inspection under the
vulture-like eye of the scrivener, who, it appears, lends money on good
security and traffics in annuities and jointures.
The borrower is evidently accustomed to take life easily, he is putting
himself into the claws of the Israelites, and is otherwise 'going to
the bad' with perfect good humour and in a sociable frame of mind, not
unlike the way of proceeding practised by the heroes of Sheridan's
comedies; indeed, there is a great deal of the _Charles Surface_
element in the composition.
The pictures which fill young Hopeful's walls tell his story after the
Hogarthian method. There are portraits of the relatives who have left
their savings and estates to the present careless holder: Sir Matthew
Mite, a miser; Lady Crane; and Sir Peter Plumb--all persons of a 'warm'
disposition as to wealth. There is a 'view of the Yorkshire estate;'
then there is 'The Prodigal Son,' which may be held to apply to the
heir, whose ways of making the money fly are further illustrated by
such pictures as a 'Hazard Table,' 'A game fighting-cock,' a racehorse,
'Sancho,' on the course; and a blood mare, 'Diana,' and foal; the
breeding and running of racehorses being considered then, as now, among
the most expeditious routes to insolvency.
_November 30, 1812._ _Christmas Gambols._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1
James Street, Adelphi.--The festivities represented, which partake of
the free and frolicsome description, are taking place in the servants'
hall. Full drinking has been the order of the evening; the master's
cellar and the servants' heads have both been lightened simultaneously,
and the results are displaying themselves under the mistletoe and in
horseplay. A footman and a parlour-maid are rolling over one another
indiscriminately on the hearthrug amidst the fragments of crockery
demolished in their downfall. A sturdy black footman is lifting a fat
wench in his arms for a chaste salute. Practical joking is the order of
the evening; the fat cook has been toppled back in her armchair, and is
vainly flourishing her basting-ladle to drive off her assailant, while
her feet are in the air; and the butler, as author of the mischief,
is making the best use of his opportunities, while another couple are
exchanging kisses with evident goodwill.
1812. _The Successful Fortune-hunter (Bath Crescent), or Captain
Shelalee leading Miss Marrowfat to the Temple of Hymen._--In the
distance are indicated the regular frequenters of Bath, sufferers from
gout on crutches, and invalids in wheeled-chairs. A dashing Irish
adventurer, one of the bold fortune-hunters--notorieties from the
Sister Isle in Rowlandson's day--is leading captive the wealth and
person of a somewhat vulgar and stumpy heiress, whose figure is loaded
with jewellery fashioned on a scale of oppressive magnitude.
1812. _Hackney Assembly. 'The Graces, the Graces, remember the
Graces!'_ From erasures in the date of this plate it seems probable
that it was originally issued ten years earlier. As the title
indicates, this sketch is a broad burlesque of the deportment displayed
by the frequenters of a suburban ball-room. The awkward and ungainly
carriage of all the figures is amusingly exaggerated. A master of
the ceremonies, the expression of whose features is complicated by
a decided squint, is briskly performing the rites of his office and
introducing a cobby little gentleman as a partner to an angular and
misshapen spinster, who, in consulting _the graces_, has thrown her
Gothic frame into an absurdly constrained and affected posture.
1812. _The Learned Scotchman, or Magistrate's Mistake._ Woodward del.,
Rowlandson sculp. Published by T. Tegg (150).--A Scotchman is led
before a country justice, charged with drunkenness; the magistrate's
wife is seated by the side of her lord, and is much shocked at the
learned Caledonian's defence; bowing low, bonnet in hand, the Scot is
throwing himself on the clemency of the court: 'I own, your honour, I
was a little inebriated, but your worship knows _Nemo mortalium omnibus
hooris saupit_.' 'What's that you say, fellow,' retorts the magistrate,
'about a sawpit?--a very improper place to go with such company. I
wonder you are not ashamed to mention such a thing, and before my wife
too. But, however, as it is your first offence, I will discharge you
this time; but never come here with such a story again!'
1812 (?). _Preaching to some Purpose._--An open-air meeting of rustic
worshippers. Great astonishment is pictured on the upturned faces of
the expectant congregation. The preacher is raised on an extemporised
pulpit; he is clad in black, but in the rear of his nether garment
appears a formidable rent, which his hand is not sufficiently broad
to conceal. He is earnestly addressing his perplexed hearers to the
following purpose: 'Dearly beloved, before I begin my discourse, I
have three things to inform you of. The first thing I know, and you do
not know. The next thing you know, and I do not know,--and the third
thing none of us know, viz., in my way here to preach, crossing Farmer
Hobson's stile, I tore my breeches,--the extent of the rent I know, and
you do not know. Secondly, what you are willing to subscribe to get
them repaired you know, and I do not know. And lastly, what Tim Snip,
the tailor, will charge for the job, _that none of us know_!'
1812 (?). _New Invented Elastic Breeches._ H. Nixon invt., T.
Rowlandson sculp.--Two tailors are using considerable manual force
trying to pull a customer into a pair of close-spring breeches. The
scene is taking place on the premises of the inventor and manufacturer
of the patent articles in question.
_No date._ 1812 (?). _A Visit to the Doctor._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
fecit. Published by T. Tegg.--The consulting-room of a learned
physician; an imposing bookcase fills the background. The doctor's
man has just shown up a comfortable-looking couple, who have called
for the benefit of the physician's advice--the practitioner is one of
the old school--full-bottomed wig, powder, and pigtail, a learnedly
long-skirted square-cut suit, lace frill and ruffles, huge spectacles,
and a professional gold-headed cane held up to the nose; he is standing
on the hearthrug, warming his learned back at the fireplace; above the
mantelpiece is a bust of Galen. The patients, who are evidently robust
country folks, thus set forth their case:--'Do you see, Doctor, my dame
and I be come to ax your advice--we both of us eat well, and drink
well, and sleep well,--yet still we be somehow queerish!' The Doctor is
equal to the emergency and prepared to alter all this promptly. 'You
eat well, you drink well, and you sleep well,--very good. You were
perfectly right in coming to me, for depend upon it I will give you
something that shall do away with all these things!'
1812 (?). _Puff Paste._--A fat cook is rolling out pudding paste;
around her board are spread _codling tarts, apple dumplings, and batter
puddings_; a footman is embracing her ample shoulders, and familiarly
patting her under the chin.
1812. _Mock Turtle_ pictures a pair of elderly suitors cooing over a
bowl of mock turtle soup; a pair of real turtledoves, perched on a
branch, are introduced to carry out the allusion.
1812. _Off She Goes._ Rowlandson fecit. Published by T. Tegg.--An
elopement unexpectedly accelerated. A rope-ladder has enabled
a stout abductor to assist the flight of a somewhat mature and
remarkably corpulent lady from the window of her chamber. A rung of
the rope-ladder has given way with the weight; at the moment a male
relation, nightcap on head, is discovering the flight and throwing a
light on the subject with a chamber candle which he is holding out of
the bedroom window. The partner of the elopement is an officer; he is
precipitated on to his back, and forms a convenient cushion to receive
the lady's fall, which is complete and overwhelming. A postchaise,
prepared for the flight, is seen in the distance; the postilion is
enjoying the spectacle of his employer's downfall; and the moon,
peeping over a cloud, is represented with a broad grin on its face at
the expense of these disconcerted 'fly-by-nights.'
1812. _English Exhibitions in Paris, or French People astonished at our
improvements in the Breed of Fat Cattle._
1812. _A Cat in Pattens._ Rowlandson invt.--Though thoroughly in
Rowlandson's characteristic manner the scene is somewhat suggestive
of Hogarth's plate of 'Morning,' 'Times of the Day,' in which the
portrait of Miss Bridget Allworthy is exhibited, the introduction of
whose burlesqued resemblance is said to have cost the painter the
loss of a legacy. An old maid whose countenance certainly bears a
close resemblance to that of a cat, is shuffling along in the breeze
on pattens; she has a boa and an enormous muff; before her trots a
French poodle, clipped fantastically to resemble a parody of a lion;
behind her shivers a black page, in a tight gaudy uniform; under his
arm is his mistress's umbrella, and he holds before him a bundle of
cat's meat. A half-naked and ruffianly beggar is trying to excite the
benevolence of this shrewish _Cat in Pattens_.
* * * * *
PETTICOAT LOOSE.
_A FRAGMENTARY TALE OF THE CASTLE._
WITH FOUR PLATES ETCHED BY ROWLANDSON.
London: J. J. Stockdale, 41 Pall Mall, Feb. 12, 1812. 4to.
The argument upon which the story is founded is set forth in the
following 'advertisement':--
_'Dublin Castle. The Adventure of the Under Petticoat at the Castle
Drawing Room. "Honi soit qui mal y pense."_ All the world has been
amused with the singular disaster that befel a lady on Thursday night
last at the _Viceregal Palace_, by the loss of her under petticoat,
which, from the pressure of the crowd, unfortunately slipped down
through the capacious encumbrance of her hoop, and was soon trampled on
the floor--though likely to become as renowned as Penelope's web: for
the lady to whom it belonged lost by night the comfort and protection
that was her security by day. One of the young pages (who are always
peeping and bustling on such occasions) first made the discovery. The
trophy was soon displayed in order to find out the fair owner; which,
however, still remains a secret, except to the person immediately
concerned. But, like the shield of Achilles, the little petticoat soon
became the subject of admiration and contention.
'At the first impression the master of the ceremonies claimed the
prize, as his official perquisite, alleging it was dropped in the
_Presence Chamber_. But the Chamberlain insisted the drawing-room was
his _champ d'or_, and every windfall on such occasions his exclusive
property. That as a true knight he must take up the gauntlet thus
thrown down by a lady.
'The household troops, particularly the young _aides-de-camp_,
struggled through the crowd to see the cause of such bustle; and having
satisfied their curiosity, whispered one another, and, in their usual
way, set up a great titter. The chaplain in waiting had his eye upon
the petticoat, and said he thought in decorum it ought to be deposited
among the _new antiquities_ in Bedford Chapel.
'The Duke, with his usual good humour, liberality, and regard for
the fair creation, decided the contest by saying that it should be
suspended as a banner round the temple of love and beauty; and that as
Edward the Third constituted the Order of the Garter from a similar
accident at the British Court, he would solicit the Prince Regent, in
the true spirit of chivalry, to establish and become _Sovereign of the
Order of the Petticoat_ in Ireland, in commemoration of the pleasant
adventure,' &c.
Plate 1. _Capture of the Petticoat._ February 12, 1812.
Plate 2. _Breakfast Room at an Inn._ February 12, 1812.
Plate 3. _College Green before the Union._ February 12, 1812.--A scene
of state, bustle, and prosperity.
Plate 4. _College Green after the Union._ February 12,
1812.--Shabbiness, poverty, and beggary have sole possession of the
scene.
* * * * *
VIEWS IN CORNWALL.
_April 10, 1812._ _View of a Farm House at Hengar, Cornwall._ Published
by T. Rowlandson.
_April 12, 1812._ _Cottage at the Foot of Router Mountain, Cornwall._
Published by T. Rowlandson.
[Illustration: COTTAGE AT THE FOOT OF ROUTER MOUNTAIN, CORNWALL.]
1812. _Cornwall. An Overlooker._
[Illustration: CORNWALL. AN OVERLOOKER.]
1812. _A Cornish Waterfall._
[Illustration: A CORNISH WATERFALL.]
1812. _A Watercourse._
[Illustration: A WATERCOURSE.]
_April 12, 1812._ _View of the River Camel, Cornwall._ Published by T.
Rowlandson.