Iohn Bull making observations on the comet [graphic]

"The comet has the profile head of Napoleon wearing a plumed bicorne; it rushes up from the left towards the sun, the profile head of George III, much irradiated. John Bull, a carbuncled 'cit', stoops low to look through a telescope on a tripod pointing towards the comet. Napoleon looks up at the King, who gazes fixedly above his head. He has ascended from a small piece of land rising from the narrow Channel separating it from John's wider fragment. Up this a frog clambers. On the open sea ships are strung out along the horizon. John says: "Aye - Aye - Master Comet - you may attempt your Periheliums - or your Devil heliums for what I care but take the word of an Old Man you'll never reach the Sun depend upon it"."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state