print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.5437
- Title
- Object: Billy Budget and the Pack hunting down Shop-Keepers and Servant-Maids
- Description
-
A maidservant and a shopkeeper (left) are being chased downhill by Thurlow and Pitt and their pack of hounds. A signpost with two arms on the extreme left points 'To Prostitution', and 'To Poverty': a servant-maid runs in the former direction, a shopkeeper in the latter, saying, "The Boy knows as little of Trade as he does of Maids or he would forbear to run us down with Taxes;" his wig and hat fly from his head, and he is closely followed by a dog with the head and wig of Arden, Attorney-General, his collar inscribed 'Pepper'. All the dogs but one have human heads; the exception is 'Junto', a greyhound sniffing at the petticoats of the woman. Behind him is a dog with two heads, the collar inscribed 'Joint Ty Curs'; one takes in his teeth a mop which the woman trails behind her. They are George Rose and Thomas Steele, the Treasury Secretaries. The four other dogs are inscribed 'Chicken' (Michael Angelo Taylor, see BMSat 6777), 'White Bear', 'Limbs', and 'Jowler'. The second is Lord Sydney (who is grinning delightedly), the third Carmarthen; the fourth, in legal wig and gown, is Kenyon, saying, "We'll be no longer Teased and Tormented". Behind Pepper Arden, Thurlow, in his Chancellor's wig and gown, rides on the back of the Devil, one of whose horns he holds; in his right hand he brandishes a document inscribed 'Aristocracy'; he says :
"Away with Medium between Rich and Poor,
By G-d we'll ancient Vassalage restore"
Behind him and on the extreme right Pitt rides Britannia, who advances, her hands and feet on the ground, saying:
"Thus the stubborn Youth goads me to the Heart
Himself, as yet, unconscious of the smart."
Her shield is on the ground; Pitt holds her by the hair and goads her with her own spear. 18 June 1785
Etching
- Production date
- 1785
- Dimensions
-
Height: 253 millimetres
-
Width: 350 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
For the tax on maidservants see BMSat 6794, &c. For the Shop Tax see BMSat 6798, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.5437
