The night constable [graphic]

A companion print to British Museum satire no. 6878: The country justice. Inside a watch-house, a burly watchman stands (left) facing an elderly constable who sits frowning in his arm-chair. He holds out a broken lantern and points to a thin, fashionably dressed, and apparently drunken man who stands beside him with closed eyes, holding a large stick in his left hand. Next to the constable is a clerk writing at a desk with a slanted top. The room is lit by a lantern slung from the roof. A map on the wall apparently represents the roads of the parish and the beats of the watchmen. A fire burns in a grate (right).