Lewis Walpole Library Images

A Ballad Singer. A Match Woman. A Dealer in Greens

"And then She wend Sighing Heigho - Heigho! She wanted a husband, Heigho!"
"Is she not a delightful creature - to speak in confidence would not your Mr Green & her make a sweet match. I really think the young people have a Penchant for each other."
"Very likely Madam, but as I am Guardian to the Green family & have the care of thier fortunes with the selecting them Wives & Husbands, they don't marry but upon very particular Con_si_de_ra_tions."

Title: Matrimonial comforts, sketch 3 - Rowlandson - 1799
"You can't deny the letter you false man - I shall find out all your Vicked Women - I shall you abominable Seducer"
"Indeed Lovey I know no more who sent the letter than the Man in the Moon"

Courtship and Marriage
Courtship - When Two Fond Fools together meet / each look gives Joy, each Kiss so sweet / Pleasures the Burden of the Song / Joying and Playing, all day long - When Wed, how cold, and cross they'll be, Turn up side down and then you'll see.
Marriage - That form once o'er with Angry Brows / The Married Pair both Peevish Grow /All night and day, they scold, and growl / She calls him Ass, he calls her fool / Thus oft we see in real life / Love ends, When once you're Man and Wife.

Title: Matrimonial comforts, sketch 5 - Rowlandson - 1799
Killing with Kindness
"You must have some Apricots my love"
"wont eat any thing more I tell you - I shall be choaked - got an eye to the Estate I suppose"
"Just taste these Grapes Brother in Law you never eat finer"

Modern Marriage a la Mode. Sweet Fruits of the Third Honeymoon.
MY NOTE: Second marriage was called "the triumph of hope over experience" by 18th-century essayist Samuel Johnson.

Six weeks after marriage J.P. fecit.1790 Smith, Charles Loraine, 1751-1835, artist.

Six weeks after marriage. Printed for Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London, published as the Act directs [25th June, 1777]

The [Prince's] Nursery or Nine Months After [Marriage]. TEXT: Published 9th May 1786 by S.W. Fores at the Caracature Warehouse No 3 Picadilly

TItle: Matrimonial Comforts Sketch 8 - A Curtail Lecture! 1799
A man lies on his back in bed, his face set in grim resignation, as his wife leans over him lecturing him, "Yes you base man --you dont you eat drink and sleep comfortably at home and still you must be jaunting abroad every night. I'll find out your intrigues-- you may depend upon it." A small dog sits at the foot of the bed yelping at the couple while a larger dog sleeps on the floor, his eyes squeezed shut.

Title: Polygamy Display'd OR Doctor Madman restored to his senses. 1780
About Rev. Martin Madan (1726-1790)
An older man, representing Rev. Madan, is attacked by two women, one of them pulling on his coat and indicating a crying boy standing next to her, the other grasping his wig with her left hand and ready to strike him with a small stool she is holding in her right. Her right foot is propped on a volume entitled "Thelyphthora," his treatise advocating polygamy. Behind her, a third woman is picking his pocket. On the left two women are engaged in a fight; on the right a couple is kissing behind a screen on which is displayed an image of a duel, above it is an image of a prisoner in chains and next to it a body hanging from the gibbet.

TItle: Six Weeks After Marriage. 1777 date estimated by George
A well-dressed young couple are shown in an argument. The woman, seated on a couch, has just overturned her tea table. Cups and saucers litter the floor and the woman's small dog jumps up on her husband who turns away from the scene. A reduced version of George 4549.

The Constant Couple. [London] : Publish'd Feb 24, 1786 by J. Phillips, No. 164 Piccadilly, [1786]
Temporary local subject terms: William Mansell, 1750-1820, engraver -- King George III as farmer -- Queen Charlotte as farmer's wife -- Allusion to George Farquhar's Constant Couple -- Signposts -- Windsor Castle -- Horses -- Dogs -- Dog colllar stamped: G R -- Allusion to Slough on signpost -- Milestones -- Allusion to St. James's on milestone.

Title: The Jelly-House Maccaroni. 1772. A fashionably dressed young couple embrace. From the man's waistcoat hangs a small pomander.

The modern paradise, or, Adam and Eve_,_ regenerated. 1780
A nude couple in enormous wigs stands under the "Tree of Life." A sheet of paper covering the man's hips is inscribed "Mr. Rock." In his left hand he holds a ticket to a masquerade at Pantheon, in the right a walking stick. A serpent, inscribed "Modern gap of honour" glides between his legs and next to a saddle, whip and a riding hat inscribed "Furniture for saddling an estate." Next to the woman who holds a fan in front of her thighs, with a dog climbing up her knee, lie on the ground a staff and a comedy mask, a ticket and a letter addressed "To Belinda." Behind the woman a monkey is holding a mirror. Playing cards and dice fall off the tree which is hung with cards advertising fashionable places in London such as the Carlisle House, Pantheon, White's Club, Ranelagh and Almack's, among others. On the left a devil is walking away from her toward a roaring fire saying "I'll even back to Hell again, for these must be too knowing for me by the Size of their Heads." On the right in the background two men, identified as "Cain and Abel" are dueling. Another man lies on the ground having fallen off a galloping horse. The explanation below reads "For the benefit of the next heir."

Images - from art of the print - Rowlandson

Hot Goose, Cabbage & Cucumbers" was drawn and etched by Thomas Rowlandson in 1823. Thomas Rowlandson's title may seem somewhat perplexing to the modern eye but a contemporary would easily recognize its significance. All three elements relate directly to the Regency world of the tailor. 'Goose' referred to a tailor's smoothing iron. Hot gooses (not geese) are being prepared in the fire by the young assistant. 'Cabbage' is an old English slang term for the left over pieces of cloth from commissioned suits. These pieces were often patched together or cut up and made into articles of clothing for sale -- at very little cost to the tailor. Both the old tailor and his other assistant are at work on such remnants. Tailors, in fact, were sometimes called cabbages. Finally, 'Cucumber Time' was a term used for the slow season in the tailoring trade, when the weeks were so unprofitable that all the food that could be afforded was cucumbers. An often used maxim was, "Tailors are Vegetarians, because they live on 'cucumber' when without work, and on 'cabbage' when in full employ." * Hence Thomas Rowlandson has depicted a pretty young maid selling her cucumbers at the window. Her calm and comely appearance represents a direct contrast to the occupants of the tailor's establishment.

In his famous satirical etchings and drawings of doctors and medical practitioners, Thomas Rowlandson took aim at treatments of the day and outright quackery. In one of his highest regarded etchings, "The Consultation or Last Hope", five doctors 'examine' a patient in his last, painful stage of gout. Behind them a nurse is fast asleep. By the fireplace (where the mantelpiece contains a lineup of failed remedies) other doctors and an undertaker await their respective turns. At this time consultation from multiple doctors was customary. It was also known as 'fee-grabbing', and doctors would hurriedly make the rounds of well to do sufferers for a guinea apiece.

Thomas Rowlandson has supplied the following quotation under the title; "So when the Doctors shake their heads, and bid their patient think of Heaven -- Alls over, good Night." 1808

Images - from art of the print

Modern Grace,-or-the Operatical Finale to the Ballet of Alonzo e caro not only depicts a popular ballet of the day but three actual dancers. In the centre is the French ballet dancer, Charles Louis Didelot. To his sides are his wife, Rose Didelot, and the ballerina, Madame Parisot. Madame Parisot is diverting the attentions of Charles with her amply displayed breast. Mrs. Didelot is not amused. To complete the composition James Gillray has added a pair of wonderfully chubby ballerinas in the background.

James Gillray's "So Skiffy Skipt On, With His Wonted Grace" 'Skiffy' was Sir Lumley St. George Skeffington (1771-1850), a well known playwright and fop of the day. He belonged to the Carleton House circle and authored such plays as 'The Word of Honour', 'The High Road to Marriage' and 'The Sleeping Beauty'. He was both caricatured by Gillray and satirized by Lord Byron. In his delightful portrayal, James Gillray focuses upon Skiffy's resplendent attire.

George Cruikshank's Anglo - Gallic Salutations in London - or, Practice makes Perfect is one of a number of his commentaries upon relations among English, French and German language and culture in the early nineteenth century. Not long after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo inter Continental travel became quite widespread. With the resumption of peace fascination with foreign culture reached a peak. Members of both the emerging middle class and the upper class devoted themselves to perfecting language. Thus in this delightful etching two German visitors in London practice their skills outside 'The Original White Bear Inn' --"Gode a Morning Sare, did it rain tomorrow? -- Yase it vas." 1816.

George Cruikshank - Anglo - Parisian Salutations or, Practice par Excellence!: Not long after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo inter Continental travel became quite widespread. With the resumption of peace fascination with foreign culture reached a peak and members of both the emerging middle class and the upper class devoted themselves to learning languages. Thus in this delightful George Cruikshank etching, two English visitors adorned in the latest fashions in Paris practice their skills outside the 'Hotel des Fermes' --"Commong porty wous Munseer? -- O Oui -- il est un tres belle jour!.". 1816

George Cruikshank's most famous creations of satire were undoubtedly his Monstrosities, which were published annually from 1816 to 1828. Both Robert and George Cruikshank participated in these amazing observations of the latest ridiculous fashions. Among the many wonderful 'monstrosities' in this famous etching the overly attired woman to the immediate right of the peacock-like soldier would by itself make this image a masterpiece.

'Monstrosities of 1819 and 1820' is an original etching by George Cruikshank and published initially in 1819 and 1920. This impression was published by Thomas McLean for the second and final edition, 1835.

George Cruikshank's set of two original etchings titled "The Advantages of Travel; - or - 'A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing'" satirizes both French and English tourists and how, in a very small period of exposure to a foreign climate, they manage to perfectly maul a language.

In the first etching George Cruikshank created for "The Advantages of Travel..." a native of Paris has just arrived from England and is greeted by a friend; "Comment se porte mon amie? - Moi - I am jost come from de England - Aha you vas jost come from de England! Den how you like de Bif? - Le Bif rote is charmant a Londres! Yase dat is vrai - bote je prepare le Rum-Tek! - Le Rum-Tek! vat is de Rum Tek? - Voyez vous - it is toujours de Bif Tek - mais-bote-day-call it Rum tek -ba-cause day pote de Rum in de Sauce."

In the second and final etching George Cruikshank created for "The Advantages of Travel..." the tables have turned, with two Londoners discussing the merits of French cooking; "Ah Jack - How are ye? - Devilish well- just crost the water - been to Paris! - Well & how did ye like the Cooking? - Confounded good - 'pon my soul - Liked their Harrico-Blong- best -- What's Harrico Blong? - What's Harrico Blong! Why you know what Harrico - is don't ye? - To be sure - It's mutton chops & carrots & turnips -- with wedgables -- Very well then! That's it & Blong -you know's the name of the first Cook as made it. -- Oh - aye ---- so it is ---I remember now !!"

These two original George Cruikshank etchings are printed upon early nineteenth century wove paper and with large, full margins as published by Thomas McLean, Haymarket in 1835.