- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3687
- Title
- Object: Bror Robert under his last Purgation
- Description
-
Satire on the downfall of Robert Walpole suggesting collusion with France. He stands in "The Corruption Chamber" dressed as a friar, his tonsured head labelled "Temple Bar" (where traitors' heads were still exposed). He is "Grip'd with ye heavy weight of ye Nation", his habit raised so that Cardinal Fleury, kneeling behind, can apply a clyster. Fleury laments, "My labour's in Vain, its all over ye Glister Returns" while behind him "The City Doctor", sniffing his cane, recommends "Give him more Phuysick & be D[amne]d". Fleury's hat and the case of the clyster pipe, both decorated with fleur-de-lis, lie on the floor beside him, together with a scroll lettered, "I have lost my Brother & Dear Correspondent"; a pill box with the number "241" (referring to the majority against Walpole in the vote on the Chippenham election) lies on a paper lettered, "This Purge is for the Good of ye Nation". In front of Walpole stands his daughter, Lady Mary Churchill, clasping his belly and saying, "How is it Mamys Cockey"; beside her stands the figure of Avarice, a winged woman with horns, raising the lid of an empty chest and saying, "Nothing left for poor Miss". Four money bags, lettered "Sr S L [?]", "Sr J L", "L W M", and "Sr A E", lie on a paper lettered, "all this for these four Members", beside other papers lettered "Excise Commission" and "Government Commission". In the background, the Treasury is seenn through an archway and Walpole, crying "for France", is being drawn in a chariot across the sky; the light from a huge axe shining down on him. 1742
Etching
- Production date
- 1742
- Dimensions
-
Height: 295 millimetres
-
Width: 201 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- "Sr S L" has not been identified but the other initials on the money bags correspond with supporters of Walpole in 1742: Sir James Lowther who "either abstained or voted against the Government, except on the motion of 21 January 1742 to set up a secret committee of the Commons to inquire into the conduct of the war, on which he was persuaded by Lord Hartington to vote for Walpole"; Lord William Manners who voted " against the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the place bill in 1740, but with them on the motion for the dismissal of Walpole in February 1741. In the next Parliament he was absent from the division on the chairman of the elections committee, 16 Dec. 1741"; and Abraham Elton who normally "voted with the Opposition... but in his last Parliament, after abstaining from the division on the chairman of the elections committee in December 1741, he was reported to be voting with the Government. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/, accessed 3 September 2012)
"The City Doctor" bears a resemblance to William Pulteney.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2018 7 Jul-29 Sep, Wiltshire, Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre, 'Little Bath - Life in Georgian Chippenham'
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3687