"Pitt as the modern Egbert (king of the West Saxons, d. 839) is rowed by four kings, and tows behind him a small boat in which the Prince of Wales is seated, his wrists and ankles chained. Pitt, who steers, is seated high in the stern of the 'Treasury Barge', he wears a combined coronet and mitre, and says to his four oarsmen, 'Pull together Boys'. They are Thurlow (stroke), Buckingham, Dundas, and Richmond (bow). All wear crowns on their heads and badges like those of watermen on their sleeves. Thurlow, stripped to the waist, his badge a rose, says, "Damme! I've got precedence of the Young Lion"; he rows with the Chancellor's mace. Buckingham (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), an Irish harp on his coat-sleeve, rows with a shillelagh, saying, "I'll answer for the Shelalagh without Authority". Dundas, wearing a thistle badge, rows with a long spoon, saying, "He shall remember old Nemo impune". Richmond, wearing a fleur-de-lis badge (he was due d'Aubigny), rows with a cannon (emblem of the ordnance, cf. BMSat 6921, &c), saying, "We'll shew him Gallic Faith." They row on one side of the boat only. A large flag in the stern of Pitt's boat has his crest (reversed), a stork grasping an anchor, with the motto: 'Devil take the Right P.W. [Prince William]'. The Prince wears a coronet with three feathers; he says, "I feel not for myself but for my country". His boat flies a flag with Pitt's crest above a flag with the royal arms. In the background is the river bank with trees, a church (the House of Commons) flying a (blank) flag (right), and (left) the dome of St. Paul's."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
King of kings
Description:
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue and Grego., State with additions to the plate., and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
Charles Bronion, Strand
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Buckingham, George Nugent Temple Grenville,--Marquess of,--1753-1813--Caricatures and cartoons., George--IV,--King of Great Britain,--1762-1830--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Melville, Henry Dundas,--Viscount,--1742-1811--Caricatures and cartoons., Pitt, William,--1759-1806--Caricatures and cartoons., Richmond, Charles Lennox,--3d Duke of,--1735-1806--Caricatures and cartoons., and Thurlow, Edward Thurlow,--Baron,--1731-1806--Caricatures and cartoons.