A petty-professor of modern-history brought to light [graphic]

"William Smyth, slim, and fashionably dressed under his gown, delivers a lecture. He stands in profile to the left, his hands resting on the cloth-covered table on which his reading-desk stands, its slope covered with the sheets of the lecture. Heavy clouds surround him, and conceal his feet. His audience face him on seats rising steeply; they are either asleep or yawning. In the front row and on the extreme left is a young man wearing a gold-embroidered nobleman's gown, and holding a cap with a gold tassel; he sleeps, holding his watch. Behind the undergraduates are elderly fellows wearing wigs; other fat, bewigged Fellows are in the background, on the lecturer's right. On the table lies an open book: 'Lectures on Modern History Dedicated to Tom Sheridan'; beside this is a MS. inscribed 'Lectures for information and Instruction of the Cantab-- Patronised by the Marq. of Lansdowne'. The scene is illuminated by rays striking downwards from an inscription: '- et versate diu, quid ferré recusent, Quid valeant humeri!' [Horace, 'Art of Poetry', ll. 39-40. Ponder long what your shoulders refuse, and what they are able to bear.] ..."--British Museum online catalogue