"Soldiers march impassively in double file through a crowded street, and over the prostrate bodies of those whom they have overthrown. Military arrogance and foppishness are personified by the officer, much caricatured, with a grotesquely elongated waist (cf. British Museum Satires No. 7352). He places one toe on the body of a fish-woman who lies on her back, her legs much exposed. His outstretched right leg is poised above a crouching woman who tries to protect her barrow of vegetables. Two men holding muskets precede the officer; one tramples on the face of an infant. The officer is followed by a man carrying a pike, behind whom march six soldiers in double file carrying muskets with fixed bayonets. All march ruthlessly, eyes front, regardless of the havoc they are causing. A porter lies on the ground clutching a broken wooden case faintly inscribed 'Mr . . . Silversmith'; from it pour plate and jewels. The porter's knee is badly damaged, and his knot has been knocked from his shoulders. A milliner or courtesan lies on her back clutching the hair of a barber who clasps her leg. On the extreme right a prostrate woman tries to protect her infant, and a newsboy with his horn and a sheaf of the 'Morning Herald' tries to escape from the trampling soldiers. Other victims between the soldiers and the wall are a woman with a crutch, a shoeblack, a man with a tray of rolls. A pair of beseeching hands and two female legs (right) waving in the air add to the turmoil, which is accentuated by the writhing forms of the fish which fall from the fishwoman's basket. The background is formed by the wall of a stone building with two elaborately barred niches, and by the window of a silversmith's shop (right)."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Gillray in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Temporary local subject terms: Abuses: military marches, 1787 -- Newspapers: Morning Herald -- Architectural details: barred niches -- Trampled victims -- Guns: muskets with fixed bayonets -- Protection of the Bank, 1787 -- Military march, double file -- Children: abused infant -- Shops: exterior of a silversmith shop -- Silversmith's box -- Vegetable sellers -- Fishwomen -- Allusion to the Strand -- Allusion to Cheapside -- Allusion to Fleet Street -- Porter's knot -- Newsboys -- Milliners., and Watermark: Hall & [...]plin 1804 on the right side of sheet; Strasburg bend on the left.
Publisher:
Pubd. Augt. 22d, 1787, by S.W. Fores, Piccadilly
Subject (Topic):
Soldiers, British, Military uniforms, Military officers, Marching, Food vendors, Porters, Rifles, Barbers, Newspaper carriers, and Storefronts
