- Museum number
- 1851,0901.925
- Title
- Object: Pigs Meat;-or- The Swine Flogg'd out of the farm yard.
- Description
-
Pitt and Dundas (in tartan), back to back, vigorously ply long whips against a herd of swine with human faces whom they drive through broken palings from the enclosure in which they stand (right). On the extreme left is the corner of a pound through which poke the heads of two (normal) swine, ringed and shedding tears. The swine who are being flogged have, beside their human heads, ringed snouts, both heads being enclosed in a wooden triangle. The leaders are Fox, with Norfolk (cf. BMSat 9205) on his right and Bedford (cf. BMSat 8684) on his left The others are less prominent: Erskine, Tierney, looking over Fox's back, Burdett, Derby, and Nicholls (left), while M. A. Taylor (right), smaller than the others, scampers to right instead of left. Beside the pound (left) stands a grinning yokel (John Bull); on its post is a placard: 'London Corresponding Society - or the Cries of the Pigs in the Pound'. The background is a row of conical haystacks behind which is a thatched and gabled farm-house. Below the title verses (50 ll.) are etched in three columns:
'Once a Society of Swine,
Liv'd in a Paradice of Straw,
A herd more beautiful and fine
I'm sure, Sir Joseph [Mawbey, see BMSat 7163], never saw,
. . . . . .
A stack Yard very tempting stood,
Near to the Place where our Pigs dwelt,
And as the Grain within seem'd good,
Each a desire to Taste it, felt!
But, ah! 'twas fenced with Paling stout,
To keep destructive Pigs without:
One boar there was with Fat opprest [Fox],
An overgrown enormous brute,
Who long'd much more than all the rest
To ransack this forbidden Fruit,
. . . . . .
"Citizen Pigs, it grieves me much
"To see your want of spirit such,
. . . . . .
"Grub up for shame these Palings vile
"And let us every Stack despoil!
. . . . . .
The Pigs who follow'd his advice
Grub'd up the Pales, - when in a trice
Their Noses Ring'd, - & Ears cut off they found
Some lost their Tails; & some clap d up in Pound
. . . . . .
And Johnny Bull, a gaping grins,
And cries, " - poor Pigs, you suffers for your Sins
"Wounds how it makes a body Laugh,
"To see that Folks wont know, when they're well off' 22 June 1798
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1798
- Dimensions
-
Height: 353 millimetres
-
Width: 258 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
'Pigs Meat' derives from Spence's publication, see BMSat 8500, &c. For loss of tails cf. BMSat 9227. After the arrest of members of the London Corresponding Society, see BMSat 9189, the Habeas Corpus Act was again suspended, Tierney and Nicholls voting for it, the minority, including Sheridan, being five only. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxiii. 1429 ff. (20 Apr.); on 1 June the Alien Act was continued.
The stack-yard, according to 'London und Paris', ii. 82, is that of Farmer George; the stacks terminate in bunches of straw resembling crowns. One of many allusions to Fox's desire to restrict the King's authority, cf. BMSat 9196.
Grego, 'Gillray', pp. 245-6. Wright and Evans, No. 206. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0901.925
