Directions to footmen [graphic] / Rowlandson inv.

"An untidy shock-headed footman stands letting a tureen slide on to the table so that its contents pour out; in his I. hand is a dish containing a leg of mutton, held so that joint and gravy fall to the floor. He stands between a hideous old woman at the head of the table (rigth) and a comely young one on her right. A fat maidservant follows the footman, holding a dish. Behind the man hangs an elaborately framed bust portrait of a grim-looking man wearing an early eighteenth-century wig. A cockatoo screams from a cage (l.). A dog sits behind the old woman's chair, a cat puts its fore-paws on the table to lap the spilt soup. Below the title: 'Take off the largest dishes, and set them on with one hand, to shew the ladies your vigour and strength of back, but always do it between two ladies, that if the dish happens to slip, the soup or sauce may fall on their cloaths, and not daub the floor, by this practice, two of our brethren, my worthy friends, got considerable fortunes. . . . When you carry up a dish of meat, dip your fingers in the sauce, or lick it with your tongue, to try whether it be good, and fit for your masters table - .' [Two quotations from Swift's 'Directions to Servants'.]"--British Museum online catalogue, description of original issue.