- Museum number
- 1868,0808.9514
- Title
- Object: Mother Shipton's prophecy
- Description
-
Nine designs, arranged in three columns, each with verse inscription below (a loose parody of "The House that Jack built"). [1] The east front of the reconstructed Buckingham Palace, with a tiny Neptune standing on the pediment. Below: 'This is the House that George built'. [2] Nash sits, spiked on the steeple of All Souls, Langham Place, as in BM Satires No. 14644. Below: 'This is the man that pulls up and pulls down, | That by novel Erections has spangled the town, | That designed the house that George built.' [3] John Bull stands, holding out empty pockets: 'This is the man by Taxes all torn, | By Tithes, Rates and Imposts is driven forlorn, | . . . | To pay for the house . . .' [4] Two men in a prison cell: 'These are the men that have waited in vain | Whose hope is deffered by the vice of the Reign; | Whose money was sent by the Sovereing of Spain | To requite them their losses unjustly sustaind, | Tis filchd (and ne'er shall we see it again) | To pay for the house. . .' [5] Neptune, with gouty leg and crutch (from the roof, see [1], but here George IV), addresses Achilles (Wellington). Behind are the portico and dome of the Palace. Below: 'My Son have no Ambition for my Place | I've caught the gout among this pigmy race, | And well thou knowest thine is better air, | Thine independence too is better fare, | Well too thou know'st what ti's to see much blood spilt, | But canst thou procure cash for the house . . .' [6] Achilles threatens, with a sword like a jaw-bone, the east front of the palace which is surrounded by clouds of smoke or dust: 'Ah great Achilles art thou bent upon slaughter, | Tis only poor Nep wrapped up in plaster | His wars are all over his tars have forsook him, | Like Walton, the Goths have cruelly hooked him, | Exposed him to ridicule, jesting, and laughter, | Of all the land loobies. Indeed fis not Hector, | Forbear then you Greek, Tis our naval protector, | Thev'e [sic] perched on the house . . .' [7] Three men point and jeer at the palace: 'These are the men who indulge in their laughter, | At the Punches and pigmies cut out of plaster, | At the man with his fork [trident] and the pudding [dome] of State, | At the scite wisely chosen to put up a Gate, | . . .| In the Valley of fogs by the Toad in the hole, As Monsieur terms the house . . .!' [8] Three men sit over a plan of the palace: 'These are the Tasters of tasteless renown, | That have muddled the thing in a manner their own, | That have piled up a mass of shapeless confusion | In patch, pudding and peacemeal [sic] have sunk half a million | That the portal have placed that Achilles may see it [from Apsley House] | And the City of Troy in the bog hole beneath it, | That should the great hero have a new prediliction, | He may tumble down headlong like souls to perdition: | So they've guarded the house . . .' [9] The House of Commons, the Speaker in the Chair, and four bewigged and long-eared clerks at the Table; the benches are empty: 'These are the men with wisdom collected [cf. BM Satires No. 14671], | Let those blunders and squanders by them be corrected | Unless as is usual all things are neglected, | Let them pull down the thing, or bring it to lot, | Chuse a scite where a King will not die of dry rot, | Midst Brewers & Brickilns, Cads, Dustmen, and Sots, | Where now stands the house . . .'
Below the title in three columns:
'In the year thats now beginning
England's King shall have a home,
Where the Guards their drums are dinning,
Where old Nash has built a dome,
Emblem of a Yorkshire pudding!
Emblem of a wigless head!
Emblem of a dunghill budding,
Aptly covered o'er with lead!
Engines smoking,
Senses choking,
Pool in front and Pool in rear,
Harlots prowling,
Rabble howling—
All to charm the royal ear;
Thus by taste our purse is dipt on,
Hark! the rhymes of Mother Shipton.' c. January 1830
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1830
- Dimensions
-
Height: 367 millimetres
-
Width: 278 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)
Buckingham Palace was to be finished by George IV's birthday (12 Aug.) 1830 with decorative sculpture commemorating Waterloo and Trafalgar. See Wellington, 'Despatches', N.S. vi. 3. A summary of current attacks on the palace on grounds of "taste" (the King's), extravagance, and inelegibility of site, see No. 15667, &c. The brick-kilns, &c. disappeared with the building operations of Thomas Cubitt in the Five Fields (already begun) which transformed Pimlico into Belgravia. The Lock Hospital was removed in 1842. The "better air" is at Apsley House, cf. No. 15663.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.9514