Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2Grego, Joseph
History
Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2
Grego, Joseph
English wit and humor, Pictorial; Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827
'When I relate that five leaden ice-moulds and eight of the
confectioner's pewter spoons were missing, you will scarcely suppose
that any of the good things, such as cakes, sweetmeats, &c., were
suffered to remain on the sideboard at the departure of my guests.
Whether this practice not to "leave a wreck behind" is as general
here as in Malta, I am unable to decide. At the latter place, let the
provision be ever so abundant, what the stomach cannot compass the
pockets are sure to hold, and in stuffing those no great nicety is
observed; so the article is portable at all, it finds its way into one
or the other of the pedestrian saddle-bags as by instinct. I have been
assured by one of our officers that, at a great fête which General Fox
recently gave at Malta, one of the inhabitants (of sufficient rank to
be of the party) very dexterously, and, as he fancied, unobserved,
slipped a small pullet, wrapt in his pocket-handkerchief, into one of
his side receptacles. Unfortunately, an officer near him, seeing the
sleight-of-hand transaction, poured a dose of parsley and butter after
it, saying very coolly, "Allow me, sir, to help you to a little sauce
at the same time."'
1815. _The Dance of Death._ With illustrations, 2 vols., royal 8vo.
Published by R. Ackermann. (See 1816.)
1816.
_January 10, 1816._ _Exhibition at Bullock's Museum of Bonaparte's
Carriage taken at Waterloo._ Published by R. Ackermann, 101
Strand.--Bullock's museum of natural curiosities was the receptacle for
most of the novelties introduced to the British public at the close
of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. It
was here that the sight-seer might view the Laplanders with their deer
and sledges, the Hottentot Venus, the Polish dwarf, the Irish giant,
and other marvels for the curious which happened to hit the capricious
taste of the hour. It seems that the relics of the first Napoleon, made
familiar enough to our generation at Madame Tussaud's Baker Street
Museum, were the chief attractions held out by the earlier Bullock in
1816. The central point of the collection is the Emperor's travelling
carriage; ladies are swarming and climbing over the vehicle, being
pushed, dragged, and lifted into the inside, on to the driving-box,
over the roof, into the boot behind, on the wheels, and, in fact,
wherever a foothold can be secured. There is an animated attendance
of visitors; the fair sex are particularly distinguishing themselves.
Other personal relics of the Corsican are spread about, much as we
see them in our day; the bust of the exile is placed by the side of a
monkey, an illustration of the prejudice in which Napoleon was held
at that period, which, by the way, is not unnatural, considering the
exertions which the European bugbear had employed to ruin English
commerce and to alienate our possessions abroad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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