"A stout farmer rides (left to right) past an inn on a cow. The cow befouls and tramples on a paper inscribed 'Tax on Ho[rses]'. The farmer looks triumphantly over his right shoulder at a group of spectators standing at the door of the inn, and snaps his fingers, saying, "Pitt be D------d". A basket containing poultry hangs from the saddle. Part of the inn is on the left of the design, its sign is a stout man holding a foaming tankard gazing at three sacks, inscribed 'Joe Jolly 1784' (a '7' appears to have been etched over the '4'). Five amused spectators stand by the door; from a window above two men applaud the farmer."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Reissue of a print originally published in 1784., Pitt's budget of 1784 imposed an annual tax of 10s. on saddle- and carriage-horses, exempting those used for trade and agriculture. On 27 November 1784 one Jonathan Thatcher rode his cow to and from the market of Stockport in protest against the horse-tax. See Chambers, 'Book of Days', ii. 627, where there is a copy of a similar print., and For a variant state, see no. 6672 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6.
"Political satire; a farmer rides to market on a cow from an inn named 'Joe Jolly', with a goose and a cockerel in a basket attached to his saddle, and a notice reading 'Tax on Horses' under the cow's hoof; a small group cheer him from the lintel and window of the inn."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Pitt outwitted
Description:
Title etched below image., Below plate line, letter press explanatory text: A farmer in Cheshire, who kept a good team of horses, but had not entered one as a hackney or saddle horse, having occasion to go to Stockport market on Friday, actually saddled a cow, and rode her in triumph to and from the market, attended by a numerous concourse of spectators, who heartily enjoyed the joke - See Morning Herald of Friday Dec. 3, 1784., For a later state by a different publisher, see no. 6672 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6., Three lines of text below the image., and Watermark in center of sheet: Taylor.
Publisher:
Publish'd as the act directs, Decr. 11th, 1784, for M. Smith, No. 46 Fleet Street