"A group playing at cards interrupted by a beadle and watchmen to arrest them for playing past midnight."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from item., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Plate numbered in upper right corner: N. 16., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.
A companion print to British Museum satire no. 6878: The country justice. Inside a watch-house, a burly watchman stands (left) facing an elderly constable who sits frowning in his arm-chair. He holds out a broken lantern and points to a thin, fashionably dressed, and apparently drunken man who stands beside him with closed eyes, holding a large stick in his left hand. Next to the constable is a clerk writing at a desk with a slanted top. The room is lit by a lantern slung from the roof. A map on the wall apparently represents the roads of the parish and the beats of the watchmen. A fire burns in a grate (right).
Description:
Title engraved below image., Eight lines of verse below title: "Watchman. This wicked dog did lift his hand, First knocked me down, then bid me stand; The peaceful neighbours he awoke, And then the Knave my lanthorn broke, At which the Villain loud did Laugh, So down I knock'd him with my staff. "Constable: If so: you Justice did yourself, Therefore begone thou prating Elf.", Originally published July 10, 1785. Cf. British Museum catalogue no. 6879., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Watermark: fleur-de-lis on a shield with initials G R below.
Publisher:
Published Sepr. 8th by S.W. Fores at the Caracature [sic] Warehouse, No. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
England and London.
Subject (Topic):
Law enforcement, Police, Clerks, Dogs, Fireplaces, Inkstands, Lanterns, Rifles, Soldiers, British, Watchmen, and Writing materials
