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!'