print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8336
- Title
- Object: The Wimbledon hoax! Or Waterloo review!! !!! June 18th 1816-.
- Description
-
Frontispiece to the 'Scourge', xii. [One impression is not folded, showing that it was separately issued.] Holiday-making 'cits' drive, ride, and walk (right to left) on a dusty road, in the direction of a sign-post (right) pointing 'To Wimbledon' (left); the opposite arm points (right) to: 'a near Cut to Batter sea'. [An allusion to the retort to a simpleton: 'You must go to Battersea to get your simples cut.' E. C. Brewer, 'Dict, of Phrase and Fable'. Cf. No. 12831.] On the extreme left is the back of a coach, with outside passengers, one with a huge frothing tankard. A fat man trudges between two women, followed by a bloated dog. A 'cit' on a bucking horse follows. Next is a family party: a fat woman carrying an infant, her lean husband holding a bag and a telescope, and dragging a go-cart in which sit four young children, while a chimney-sweep stands on the back of the cart, followed by another hanging to his coat; a child angrily threatens them with a coral and bells. Two meretricious-looking women walk arm-in-arm, closely followed and ogled by two absurd men in extravagant dandy costume, also arm-in-arm. These have enormous bell-trousers as in No. 12840. Driving beside these two groups is John Bull with his wife and four children in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a lean horse, flogged into a gallop. The cart is inscribed 'J.B Tax Cart N° 1816'. Behind him a would-be dandy drives a lady in a gig. In the background is the front of the procession which has turned to the right on to open common, where are tents, a swing, with a large bonfire to which men are dragging a whole tree, just cut down.
1 July 1816
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 210 millimetres
-
Width: 415 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
A false report of an intended review at Wimbledon drew a great crowd and booths were erected. The heath on Combe Wood was fired, and it was feared that this might incite the disappointed mob to set the wood on fire. The two inns could supply drink but not eatables, which added to the disorder. The arrival of the Guards restored tranquillity. Actually, a Waterloo commemoration banquet was held in Windsor Park. 'Ann. Reg.', 1816 (Chronicle), p. 80; 'Examiner', 23 June. For the burden of taxation cf. No. 12762, &c.
Reid, No. 588. Cohn, No. 732.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8336