"Three separate scenes blend into a single design. The dialogue is etched in the lower margin. On the left a young girl sits on the knee of her father, a stout drink-blotched man wearing a plain old-fashioned wig, breeches, and top-boots. She takes his chin, saying insinuatingly: Lord, Papa! you must let us go to the Continent ; Mrs Thingamary says we shall never be accomplished till we have seen the Paris manners and customs. A round mirror is topped by a coronet. In the centre two dandies stand on a London pavement, against a background of tall houses. One, dressed in French fashion, with a moustache, a small hat perched on curls, and trousers pinched at the knee, stands with folded arms and a theatrical scowl. The other, wearing strapped trousers, tail-coat, and bell-shaped top-hat, smokes a cigar and holds a riding-whip; he asks: Well, Charles, where are you off to? Answer: O! moy dear feller, to Paris--to Paris, moy dear feller; nothing like Paris --there you have the--the--the--Je ne sçais quoi, moy dear feller, the--the every thing the every-thing!!-- On the right two ladies sit facing each other across a small round table. One wears a huge hat with broad flat brim trimmed with ribbon loops and streamers, the other a hat with wide brim bent bonnet-wise; both have big gigot sleeves, and full skirts. Below: Lord, ma'am! you are not serious,--you can never think of going to Margate--it is so common every tailor, shoemaker, and linendraper goes to Margate--No, no ma'am; Paris is the great resort of pure gentility, I assure you.--I always goes to Paris."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state
Description:
Title etched below image. and Reissue of a plate originally published 25 September 1827 by G. Humphrey. Cf. No. 15464 in Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 10.
