"Lord Malmesbury drives in a chaise with the royal arms drawn by four wretched hacks, only the hind-quarters (right) of the leaders being visible. Behind the coach stand three stolid English footmen. The chaise-doors are open, a fish-wife has entered from each side; both embrace Malmesbury who puts out his hands in dismay. Beside him (left) sits his secretary, a pen behind his ear. Another woman is getting into the chaise (left) and a fourth stands beside it, arms outspread, and grinning broadly; two fish are attached to her petticoat. All the spectators are cheering wildly. In the foreground are (left to right) a dwarfish boy, an officer wearing a feathered cocked hat and tattered coat, a ragged man wearing jack-boots and a bag-wig, waving a bonnet-rouge; a sansculotte, wearing sabots, a dagger in his belt. These are in back view. Beyond and behind the chaise bonnets-rouges are being wildly waved by a freely sketched crowd. A French postilion in military dress, a horn slung round his neck, flourishes a whip."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local subject terms: Coaches: chaise -- Frenchmen -- Crowns -- Fishwomen: poissardes -- Allusion to sansculottes -- Symbols: bonnet rouge -- Domestic service: footmen.
Publisher:
Pubd. Octr. 28th, 1796, by H. Humphrey, 37 New Bond Street
