December 9, 1811. Bel and the Dragon. Published by Stockdale.—Doctor Bell, in wig, gown, cassock, and bands, is standing calmly before a very terrific pantomimic representation of a dragon. Before the Doctor—over whose head shines the glorious midday sun, figuratively set forth—is extended the buckler of Religion held by the stalwart arm of the Marsh Clergy of Monarchists. Dr. Bell is pointing triumphantly to his school, a dignified pile, founded on a commanding eminence, marked Church and State. Behind 'the Dragon' is the rival establishment, Lancaster's School under the Broad-brim System, raised on Deceit and Misrepresentation. The Dragon's tongue, labelled Falsehood, is pouring forth smoke and flames, and his claws, Hypocrisy, Vanity, Misrepresentation, and Calumny, are extended to maul the reputation of the opposition champion.
December 15, 1811. A Milk-sop. Published by T. Tegg (125).—A pretty milkmaid, with her yoke and cans, is passing the chambers of a gallant collegian at one of the Universities; the shameless undergraduate, in cap and gown, has waited his opportunity, and as the buxom wench is passing his open casement he is leaning out of window, throwing his arm round her buxom waist, and is indulging in a chaste salute, which is cordially received. A tutor, or proctor, dodging round 'the quad,' is horrified at the scandalous licence; a sturdy infant is carried in one of the pails, the other is filled with cream, and offers a rare opportunity for plunder, of which a passing dog is not slow to avail himself—raised on his hind legs he is lapping up the welcome fluid at his leisure.
1811. Royal Academy, Somerset House, London. Rowlandson fecit.—The members, who are studying from the nude, are all well advanced in years. The seats and drawing-stands of the old Life Academy are arranged in a horseshoe; the first or inner row of students being seated, while those who form the outer semicircle are standing at their easels. An agreeable and graceful-looking female model is posed beneath the reflectors in an easy attitude which she is preserving with the assistance of a looped rope slung from the roof.
1811. The Harmonic Society. (See October 2, 1810.) Republished.
1811. Miseries of Travelling. A Hailstorm. Designed by H. Bunbury, etched by T. Rowlandson.
1811. A Tutor and his Pupil, travelling in France, arriving at a Posting-house.
1811. The Departure of La Fleur. Vide Sterne's 'Sentimental Journey.' Designed by H. Bunbury, etched by T. Rowlandson.
1811 (?). [Exhibition 'Stare' Case], Somerset House.—The staircase of the handsome buildings erected for Somerset House originally set apart for the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, is ridiculed as a scene of unequivocal confusion. Whether the dangers of the somewhat steep ascent were actually as hazardous as the artist has depicted is open to question. It will be remembered that Sir William Chambers, the architect, whose masterpiece was decidedly Somerset House, was a member of the Royal Academy, and held the office of Treasurer to that body. It was somewhat the fashion of the wits to laugh at the architect, who, as a foreigner, had received an amount of royal patronage which created certain jealousies in the minds of his English rivals, who were less favoured with the smiles of princes. Chambers' extravagant conceptions, the various novel designs he published, and particularly his marked taste for so-called Oriental gardening and the introduction of buildings after the Chinese fashion, exposed the project to an ordeal of the severest criticism and sarcasm. George the Third employed Sir William Chambers to lay out and adorn the Royal gardens at Kew, when the eminent Swede took advantage of the occasion to carry out the taste he had acquired in China [24]—an indulgence which subjected the architect to numerous well-merited satires. The famous 'Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers' was provoked on this occasion.
Peter Pindar, according to his custom, found various faults with the new pile of buildings in the Strand, and their shortcomings were pointed out with his habitual archness.
The scene of disaster and tumultuous medley which Rowlandson has ventured to introduce as attendant incidents of the Royal Academy staircase must have assisted, in some degree, to make this portion of the building a laughing-stock with the more frivolous portion of the frequenters.