- Museum number
- 1868,0808.13696
- Title
- Object: - Tentanda via est qua me quoque possim tollere humo - Virgil, Geor: -
- Description
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A sequel to No. 11384. A fantastic scene in Oxford representing Grenville's installation as Chancellor, which took place at Commemoration, 3 July 1810. Grenville rises in a balloon above a vast applauding crowd; his inflated and spherical posterior fits into the shallow bowl which forms the car. He wears a papal tiara and his Chancellor's gown; a large cross is on his posterior. He extends his arms horizontally, scattering symbolical objects. These are (left): a Cardinal's hat, a rosary, a mitre set in a ducal coronet, and a book, 'Liber Regis . . . Oxford . . .'; (right): three books: 'Letter to the Earl of Fingal'; 'Irish Mass Book'; 'Liber Valorum'. The spherical gas-bag of the balloon represents an inflated Lord Temple, the crown of the head at the summit, with upturned profile in the arc just below (left); shoes emerge from the opposite pole; from the posterior issues a tail or cloud, streaming upward, inscribed 'Promisses'. The car, decorated with Popish emblems, the Host between winged heads, hangs from cords suspended from a net covering the balloon. Three bishops, seated on asses which crouch in neighing obeisance towards Grenville, reach up eagerly towards the Cardinal's hat, &c. They are in back view, and in the foreground on the extreme left. Behind them is part of the Radcliffe Camera, the greater part being cut off by the left margin. By the door is a placard: 'Order'd That No Doctor of Laws shall be admitted without Bag Wig'. Two men are leaving the building: Lord George Grenville, followed by (?) Thomas Grenville. [Not Windham (as Wright and Evans say) who died in June. Lord Holland says Lord Grenville, but he does not resemble him, and his double appearance is unlikely.] The Marquis of Buckingham looks from the principal window under the dome; Lord Stafford leans from a smaller window below. All four wear bag-wigs and gowns. On a projection above the door stands a chicken with the head of M. A. Taylor (the 'Chick of Law', see No. 6777) puffing a blast up at the balloon. Spectacled and bewigged owls perch on the balustrade surrounding the dome.
In the foreground on the right is a large group, many of whom wear doctor's gowns with black masks over their features, tied over bag-wigs that perch awkwardly on their heads. Three of them wave their mortar-board caps towards the balloon: Erskine, Tierney (without a mask and especially deferential), and Lord Holland, his face completely blackened by a mask and wearing a mob-cap. Behind (right) are Lord Grey, Sidmouth holding a clyster-pipe behind his back (cf. No. 9849), Lord Cholmondeley, whose wig is back to front and tilted tipsily over one eye, and Whitbread, who clutches his mortarboard in both hands. In front little Lord Lansdowne capers, holding up the brush and shovel of a chimney-sweep (as Lord Henry Petty he was satirized as an inveterate dancer, cf. No. 10589). Next him, but walking off to the right, is Sheridan, who, unlike the others, does not wear a gown and bag-wig, but is naked except for tattered Harlequin trousers (cf. No. 9916), shoes, and ruffles fastened round his wrists to indicate genteel poverty; he clutches his head with a despairing gesture. In the foreground on the extreme right. Dr. Crowe, the Public Orator, sits on the ground, leaning against a milestone with closed eyes and a contented smile; beside him are an overturned tankard inscribed 'Whitbread Entire' [cf. No. 10421], and papers, 'Oratio Croweiana', which a dog is befouling. The stone is inscribed [blank] 'Miles from Oxford to Rome'.
The middle distance is filled with a dense crowd of spectators, receding into a sea of heads. Those in front are doctors in red gowns bowing low as Grenville ascends. In front of the crowd Sir W. W. Wynn and his two brothers (Grenville's nephews), sit together in a little chaise drawn by three galloping Welsh goats (as in No. 9760); they wear bag-wigs and gowns and raise their caps to Grenville. One of the goats gallops over a prostrate man in doctor's wig and gown. A bishop (the Archbishop of York) drives through the crowd (left to right) in an open barouche; he doffs his mitre; the coachman and three fat footmen standing behind wave their cocked hats. The crowd surrounds a wooden booth (left) and a high wagon which serves as platform for a rustic family group to view the display. The booth is placarded: 'Wonder of the World the biggest Flying Elephant in the Whole Fair'. Inside it, tiny figures peer at the posterior of a vast elephant with little wings and the head of Grenville.
The background is a fantastic view of Oxford towers, which resembles, and is perhaps based on, a drawing by Rowlandson (reproduced, C. Hobhouse, 'Oxford', 1939, p. 60). The crowd fills a space between the Radcliffe Camera and the wall of All Souls abutting (right) on the west end of the Chapel. Behind (left) is the cupola over the gate of All Souls with (right) Hawkesmoor's twin towers flanking a 'Popish' cross. Tom Tower, Christ Church, much heightened and enlarged (right), behind the chapel, flies a Popish flag decorated with tiara and keys, and is traversed from top to bottom by a great fissure. Bats and carrion birds fly round it. Below the design:
'-He steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight,-Par, Lost, Lib: I. l, 225-'
8 August 1810.
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1810
- Dimensions
-
Height: 505 millimetres
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Width: 391 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
Grenville's Installation was celebrated with a grand fete lasting four days, July 3 to 6. See 'Ann, Reg.', 1810, pp. 268-70; 'H.M.C. Dropmore MSS.', x. 44 ff. Besides the individuals ridiculed, the leading subjects of satire are Grenville's support of Catholic Emancipation (supposed to have infected with Popery the subservient University, eager for benefices), and the heavy posteriors of the Grenville family, cf. No. 10530. The supporters of that Ministry wearing masks are those who did not receive the degree of D.C.L. Those granted the degree included Buckingham, Temple, and Tierney. There was a story that Sheridan did not receive a degree because he could not afford a gown, also that he had been refused a degree. Actually, he had accepted Grenville's offer and went to Oxford to receive a degree, but finding that opposition had developed, withdrew his name; he was in acute financial straits at Oxford. See E. M. Butler, 'Sheridan', 1931, pp. 276 f. Grenville considered the Archbishop of York had contributed more than anyone to his election ('Dropmore MSS', x. 42). The three bishops are probably Oxford, London, and St. Asaph, see No. 11384. The 'Letter to Lord Fingall' was Grenville's pamphlet on Catholic Emancipation, published early in 1810, explaining his attitude to the pending Irish Petition, i.e. a compromise, short of the Irish demands. See M. Roberts, 'The Whig Party, 1807-1812', 1939, pp. 69 ff.
This design was suggested to Gillray by an amateur, see B.M. Add., 27,337. It is the last authenticated political print etched by him.
Grego, 'Gillray', pp. 368 f. (reproduction). Wright and Evans, No. 366. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
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Associated with: Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
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Associated with: George Nugent Temple Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham
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Associated with: George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley
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Associated with: William Cleaver, Bishop of St Asaph
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Associated with: William Crowe
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Associated with: Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
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Associated with: James Arthur Plunkett, 8th Earl of Fingall
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Associated with: George Nugent Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent
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Associated with: Thomas Grenville
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Associated with: William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville
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Associated with: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
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Associated with: Henry Richard Fox Vassall, 3rd Baron Holland
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Associated with: Charles Moss, Bishop of Oxford
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Associated with: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne
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Associated with: John Randolph, Bishop of London
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Associated with: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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Associated with: George Granville Leveson Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland
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Associated with: Right Hon Michael Angelo Taylor
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Associated with: George Tierney
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Associated with: Edward Harcourt, Archbishop of York
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Associated with: Samuel Whitbread II
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Associated with: Right Hon Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn
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Associated with: Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet
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Associated with: Richard Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.13696
