A lillipop, ally campagne, a bull's eye, and a brandy ball [graphic]

"Each phrase of the title relates to one of the four women depicted who stand in a carpeted room, each with an appropriate picture behind her. [1] A pretty girl stands in profile to the left, eyes demurely downcast, finger to lips, holding up a corner of her apron. At her feet is a letter: Dear William . . . Love. The picture is two lovers under a tree. [2] A young country girl who seems shocked at [1]; a stocking she is mending is drawn over her left hand. Her picture is a domestic interior: a woman at a spinning-wheel, her husband holding up an infant. (Her sweetmeat is Elecampane (dial. Allycompaly), flavoured with the (medicinal) root of the plant so named.) [3] An ugly spectacled old woman who berates the culprit with raised forefinger. Tales of Scandal project from her pocket. Her picture is (Æsop's) fox turning from the grapes he cannot reach. [4] A shameless old bawd, hideously drink-blotched, closing one eye in a lewd grin, a bottle of Brandy projecting from her pocket. Her picture is of a couple carousing; the woman says May we never want a Friend & a bottle to give him"--British Museum online catalogue