Miseries of human life [graphic]

"Domestic scene based on Beresford's 'Miseries of Human Life' (1806), illustrating lines which follow the title (partially damaged) of the design: '[getting up] early in a cold gloomy morning, and on running down into the breakfast room for warmth and comfort, finding chairs, ta[ble, shovel, tongues,] poker and fender huddled into the middle of the room. Carpet tossed backward. - floor newly washed, windows wide open. - bee[s wax brush and ru]bber in one corner - brooms, mops and pails in another - and a dingy Drab on her knees before an empty grate -'. A man arrested at the door of a room disarrayed by cleaning, wearing a dressing gown and with a gouty slippered foot, his hands held out warily in front of him, his teeth clenched together and his nose dripping; at left, kneeling in front of the grate, a stout and grotesque maid scrubbing the floor; a bust portrait of a man above the mantelpiece, looking disapprovingly down on the maid; cat and caged bird at far right."--British Museum online catalogue