print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8431
- Title
- Object: Royal Hobby's.-
- Description
-
Two adjacent designs. [1] The Regent tipsily bestrides a fat and ugly cook, who is on her hands and knees; he flourishes a bottle of 'Royal Max' [gin] and a glass and shouts: "Ha! ha! D—me! this is glorious! this is Princely!!—better fun than the Hertford Hobby [see No. 13213]—Kitchen stuff & Dishclouts for ever I say D—me!!—If the rascals caricature me, I'll buy em All up d—me." The cook, still holding the broken dish from which a huge cod's head has fallen, exclaims: "Oh! Master do let me alone & see! you've thrown the Cods head & Shoulders all in the dirt!" In the background, Lady Hertford, wearing a coronet, looks angrily from a doorway. On the floor in the foreground are a 'Royal Greas Pot', rolling-pin, and a ladle, with a playbill: 'Brighton—under the Pub [Patr]onage of [the Princ]e Regent—High Life below Stairs Principle Character—G P R'. See No. 13208, &c.
[2] The Duke of York, very erect, rides a velocipede (see No. 13399) in profile to the right, with Mrs. Carey behind him in a little seat over the back wheel, her hands on his shoulders. He wears Windsor uniform of military cut, with breeches, spurred top-boots, and a top-hat, which he raises. Across the pole hangs a fat purse inscribed '10,000 pr annm Custos [Personae Regis]' which serves as saddle. He says: "I say Carey: this Windsor job, is a devilish snug concern & this saddle bag makes it very pleasant riding!—I wish our army had been mounted on these Hobby's in Flanders;—I don't mean Waterloo—" She answers: "I know what you mean;—but it is a good joke, to think while the Establishment of the Father is redud at Windsor: the sons Establist is increas'd at Fulham—tis properly coming York over John Bull." In the background John Bull, a sturdy fellow, stands with folded arms outside a miserable thatched hut where women and children are crouching. He says fiercely: "£10,000 a year for a son to do his duty to his Father!!!!!! whilst my Children are starving!!!—"Fie out! O Fie 'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed things rank & gross in nature posess it merely." ['Hamlet', I. ii.] After the title: '"De gustibus non est disputandum:—that is; there is no disputing against Hobby-Horses;"—Tristram Shandy'.
Plate numbered 341.
9 April 1819
Hand-coloured engraving
- Production date
- 1819
- Dimensions
-
Height: 246 millimetres
-
Width: 345 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
The most bitter of the attacks on the Duke of York's grant, see No. 13214, &c. Mrs. Carey lived at Fulham, see No. 11050. The plate is depicted in a print of Jan. 1821 attacking Tegg for support of George IV.
Reid, No. 884. Cohn, No. 1920.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8431