Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego

following interesting subjects are liberally discussed: The Nursery, Private Schools, Public Schools, Universities, Gallantry, Duelling, Gaming, and Suicide; to which are added coloured designs, both characteristic and illustrative. By Joel M'Cringer, D.D., F.R.S., folio. Letters from the hand of the caricaturist are scarce, and however familiar collectors may be with Rowlandson's touch, and even his caligraphy, on his numberless drawings in Indian ink, the productions of his famous reed-pen, it is very seldom that samples of his familiar correspondence are to be met with. We print one example, not as an instance of his brilliancy in composition, or as representing any valuable literary disclosure, but simply as illustrating that the artist's circumstances were not too flourishing at the period under consideration. The original also contains a sketch, and is exhibited to the public in one of the cases of the British Museum (Manuscript Department), among a collection of interesting autographs of eminent men. 29,300 G. Ad^{1}. MSS. Purchased 6 June, 1871. Letter to James Heath. Engraver. Upper Charlotte Street Fitzroy Square. This note is written in Indian ink, of the consistency mixed by the Caricaturist for his outlines. No. 1 James Street, Adelphi. March 1st, 1804. Friend Heath. 'Tis with sorrow I relate that my own finances and the little sway I have with the long-pursed gentry--obliges me to retire before the plays are ended. I hope you will not say, as they do at Drury (No money returned after the curtain is drawn up). The Bill sent in says Nine Numbers, Eight only have been received, the Ninth mentioned in your letter as being delivered November the First, since my return to Town, has, through some mistake, never come to hand. I also possess a receipt from you for £2. 2. 0, and as I hope you call me a tradesman and poor, you will make out a fresh Bill, and that we shall verify the old proverb of Short Reckonings make Long Friends. I remain sincerely yours, THO^S ROWLANDSON. FOOTNOTE: [4] 'My Lord Loggerhead spells physician with an F, hem! hem!'--Doctor Pangloss, _Heir at Law_. 1805. _February 3, 1805._ _Quarterly Duns, or Clamorous Tax-gatherers._ Published by Howitt, 73 Wardour Street, Soho.--Taxation in 1805 raised a great deal of bad feeling; the satirists treated the increased imposts, and the methods of collecting them, from their point of view, and made the public smile at ills to which perforce they were compelled to submit. The house of a quack practitioner in 'Rotten Row,' one Dr. Humbug, at the sign of the Golden Pestle of Hippocrates, who advertises 'advice gratis' on his front door, is the scene of a general muster of the inquisitors and collectors of taxes. _Window Tax_, _Income_, _Property_, _House_, _Servants_, _Horses_, _Dogs_, _&c._, are among the requisitions to be levied. _The Budget opened, or how to raise the wind for the year 1805_ explains these visitations. The quack and his wife are declining to admit their duns; they are surveying the besieging party from an upper window, and the _goodwill_ of their house is, according to a placard, _to be disposed of_. The prospect of 'Houses to Let' and of windows 'Blocked up' shows that taxation was pressing with over-severity, and had, in reality, been carried beyond a joke. _February 25, 1805._ _The Famous Coal Heaver, Black Charley, looking into the Mouth of the Wonderful Coal Pit._ Published by Ackermann. Described by an English Yeoman. (Here follows a long description turning on 'the fundamental deficiency.')--Fox, in blue and buff, on his hands and knees, is staring with a look of astonishment into the mouth of a large head of Pitt, beside which flourishes a Scotch thistle (for Dundas), and around is a thicket of _scrubs_, which are interlaced over a bench, with T.B. (Treasury Bench) cut on it. _April 23, 1805._ _The Modern Hercules cleansing the Augean Stable._--'Augeas, a king of Elis, had a stable which was not cleansed for thirty years, yet Hercules cleansed it in one day.'--_Heathen Mythology._ The modern Hercules, wrapped round with his lion's skin, is making use of a monster measure, _Whitbread's Entire_, with the contents of which he is freely deluging the St. Stephen's stables. The abbot of St. Stephen's, with mitre and crozier, ensconced in his niche, is in consternation at the work going on. The horses are all standing with their heads turned to their stalls, and their hoofs to the purifier. Dundas (Lord Melville) is kicking with energy, crying 'What the Deel is the man aboot?' Wilberforce's 'Broom for the suppression of Vice' is between his legs, and before him is a huge private chest for stray provender, with money bags outside. Trotter stands next; he cries, 'Attack the Gallopers! I am only a poor Trotter.' Pitt, a very bony steed, is crying, 'I am afraid we shall all be drenched in turn;' and a crowd of others are thrown into confusion at their prospects, saying, 'Who could have expected this?' Against the wall are stalls stored with money-bags from end to end: 'Navy Stall,' 'Army Stall,' 'Treasury Stall,' &c. _April 23, 1805._ _The Fifth Clause, or Effect of Example._ Published by T. Rowlandson. _April 28, 1805._ _A Scotch Sarcophagus._ Published by T. Rowlandson, Adelphi.--The Sarcophagus is of handsome design; two cherubims, in Scotch bonnets, surmount the lid; two devils, evidently much shocked, appear on the sides. Two Highlanders, in full kilt and tartan dresses, are standing as mourners, one is leaning weeping with his elbow on the urn, the other is seeking comfort in his snuff mull. _Stop, Traveller, and read._ Within this Sarcophagus, composed of Scotch pebbles, are deposited the political remains of JOHNNY MAC-CREE and his faithful servant JOHN TROTT. In respect to the former, suffice it to say that he was a strenuous friend to all Reports that reverberated to his advantage, whether proceeding from a first rate or a Catamaran Explosion. At length a Tenth Report, aided by an obstruction in the Thorax from the fifth clause, finished his Political Career. Mourn, Scotsmen, Mourn! For though he was a swift galloper on the high road of Peculation, yet his friend John, who lies beside him, was only his inferior in being but a simple Trotter, in the grand and Sublime scale marked out by his Worthy Preceptor. They took their departure on Monday, April 8, 1805. Peace to their Political Manes! _May 15, 1805._ _John Bull's Turnpike Gate._--On a hill is an abbey church, lighted up with the glory of 'King, Church, and Constitution.' John Bull, standing before his turnpike, is guarding the pathway; on a ledge beside the post is placed a formidable work, the _Test Oath_. The Pope, with mitre, crozier, and hood, is mounted on his pontifical ass. 'Mr. Bull,' he says, 'I have been to Paris and seen all the fine sights there. I now want to have a peep at that little church on the hill, therefore let me pass the turnpike.' J. B. replies: 'If you want to go through pay the toll; what the devil do you think I keep a turnpike gate for?' A crowd of dissenters, quakers, &c., in the Pope's rear, are anxious to enjoy the opportunity: 'Though I boast not gaudy trappings,' says a quaker, 'nor am I mounted on ass-back, yet if he goeth through, verily I should like to go through also!' 'Verily so should I!' 'We should all like to go through!' _May 25, 1805._ _A Sailor's Will._ Woodward inv., Rowlandson sculp. Published by R. Ackermann. _July 8, 1805._ _The Scotch Ostrich seeking Cover._--'In the natural history of the ostrich it has been observed that when the bird is closely pursued he runs his head and neck into a hole, leaving his hinder parts exposed; concluding no doubt that, as he sees no one, no one sees him!' Dundas has thrust his head through a hole in the wall labelled _Parliamentary Recess_, he cries, 'Ah! ah! nae one sees me now!' John Bull with his blunderbuss, and his brother Pat by his side, are watching the Scotchman's manoeuvre. 'Be asy, brother Pat, I see him as plain as ever. I have plenty of ammunition left, but I shan't fire just at present.' This print is founded on the inquiries into Lord Melville's conduct when Treasurer of the Navy. _July 14, 1805._ _Recovery of a Dormant Title, or a Breeches-Maker become a Lord._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi. Republished July 14, 1812.--The features of a sudden rise in life form humorous materials in the hands of the caricaturist. The lately created nobleman, a coarse and common clothier, is swaggering in all his new finery, to give his past associates a taste of his new-found honours. His showy court dress is assumed with awkward pretension; he wears a ribbon and star and a dress sword; none of these decorations harmonise with the wearer, who is so evidently out of place in his fine feathers, that the journeymen tailors and cobblers, his neighbours and recent comrades, are jeering at his burlesque dignity; his lady dressed in unbecoming finery, and carrying a large plume of feathers on her head, looks no less 'out of character' than does her tailoring spouse. The shop, over which appears, _Stitchall, Whitechapel, Breeches cleaned and repaired_, once the pride of the pair, is now closed. A placard states: 'The goodwill of this shop to be sold, removed to Grosvenor Square;' while an old Jewess, part of the establishment, probably the ancestress of one of the pair, is trying her hardest, on the top of some steps, to wipe out the offensive name of the ex-proprietor. _July 14, 1805._ _Antiquarians à la Grecque._ Published by R. Ackermann. _October 1, 1805._ _The Departure from the Coast, or the end of the Farce of Invasion._ Published by Ackermann.--On the heights of the English coast stands the British Lion, contemptuously pouring a broadside into the retreating invader; the British cruisers are sweeping the seas. The Emperor, seated on a donkey, is limping off, to the delight of some French monkeys. The national prototype's contributions, in the shape of a shower of shot, have capsized the iron crown of Milan. 'Bless me, what a shower! I shall be wet through before I reach the Rhine.' The Emperor and his steed are overloaded with sacks of _Excuses for non-performance_. _The Boulogne Encampment_ and _The Army of England_ fill his pockets, while files of soldiers are indicated above. _October 2, 1805._ _John Bull at the Opera._ Published by T. Rowlandson.--It is a matter of no surprise to find Rowlandson, who, in spite of his acquaintance with the Continent, was as thoroughly confirmed a John Bull as his illustrious predecessor Hogarth, ridiculing the tastes of the fashionable public, who patronised and petted exotic artists, to the neglect of native talent. Like the rest of the caricaturists, he traded on the national spirit, and held up foreigners to contempt and ridicule; with a happy faculty for seizing their grotesque points, their loose ways of life, and their love of finery and display, which has not, we will venture to believe, been excelled in any day. It is natural the school-fellow, fellow-student at the Academy, and familiar intimate through life, of such a talented English performer as Bannister, should have resented the artificial taste which heaped wealth on comparatively obscure aliens, with whose art plain John Bull could have slight sympathy, while the most rarely gifted of his countrymen were left to struggle through life without a due acknowledgment, in a pecuniary sense, proportioned to the extent of their merits, as contrasted with the abilities of their foreign rivals, and the fabulous salaries they received. The designer has accordingly displayed the signor from a whimsical point of view; the face of the performer is suggestive of that of the good-looking youth, the leading figure in the eccentric humours of an _Italian Family_ (1792); it was probably a portrait recognisable at the period. Certainly John Bull, in the artist's view, does not appear much at home at the Italian Opera; the spectators are divided between gigglers and gapers, and on the whole it is doubtful if their imported entertainer affords his audience the unequivocal enjoyment they would have been able to secure at the hands of 'honest Jack Bannister,' and native performers of his stamp. [Illustration: JOHN BULL AT THE ITALIAN OPERA.] _October 30, 1805._ _Raising the Wind._ _November 13, 1805._ _Napoleon Buonaparte in a Fever, on Receiving the extraordinary Gazette of Nelson's Victory over the Combined Fleets._ Published by Ackermann.--The Emperor, in his huge cocked hat, is seriously indisposed, after reading the extraordinary gazette: '19 sail of the line taken by Lord Nelson.' Beside the Corsican is a group of court physicians in consternation: 'My dear Doctors! those sacré Anglois have played the devil with my constitution; pray tell me what is the matter with me. I felt the first symptoms when I told General Mack I wanted ships, colonies, and commerce. Oh dear! oh dear! I shall want more ships now; this is a cursed sensation. Oh, I am very qualmish!' 'Be-gar,' cries the first physician, 'I have found it out. Your heart be in your breeches!' Another doctor is observing that 'the case is desperate;' another recommends 'letting blood;' while others have, after a consultation, arrived at the conclusion--'Irrevocable.' [Illustration: A BOARDING SCHOOL.]