print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6529
- Title
- Object: Give a dog an ill name they'll hang him
- Description
-
Fox and Sheridan kneel on a rope attached to the neck of a mangy dog with the head of Pitt. The rope, inscribed 'Vox Popula' [sic], runs over a pulley attached to a gibbet, from which Pitt is suspended. The upright of the gibbet is National support, the horizontal 'Excise Office', and a cross-beam forming a triangle with the other two is 'Cross Post'. Pitt's head is much caricatured, his body is almost bare and his tail hairless; to each hind leg is tied a bottle, one: 'Sherry', labelled 'additional Duty', the other: 'Port', labelled 'New Duty'.
On the ground (left) a dog with the head of Dundas, a tartan across his shoulders and a kettle inscribed 'not my Dog' tied to his tail, runs off in the direction of a signpost pointing 'To Edinburgh'. Sheridan (left), who is well dressed, says, "A good way to save the Duty". Fox wears a waistcoat with a tattered shirt and breeches, but has a neatly powdered wig. He says: "I suppose he catch'd the Mange from the Dun Dog". 10 May 1796
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1796
- Dimensions
-
Height: 387 millimetres
-
Width: 266 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
One of many indications of Pitt's unpopularity, cf. BMSat 8664, &c. For the dog tax see BMSat 8794, &c.; for the wine duty, BMSat 8798, &c. 'Cross post' appears to be an allusion to the increased rate of postage imposed in the budget of 1796, which was combined with a new regulation of by-and cross-roads. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxii. 1261.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6529