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
_November 9, 1807._ _Thomas Simmons, drawn from Life by Mr. Angelo._
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi. 'The horrid and
inhuman murderer of Mrs. Hammerstone and Mrs. Warner at the house of
Mr. Boreham, a Quaker at Hoddesdon, in Herts, on Tuesday evening,
October 20, 1807.'--The barbarous murderer does not rejoice in a
very formidable exterior. His weakly person has been sketched by the
hand of Henry Angelo, the well-known fencing-master, a firm friend
of Rowlandson through life. His amusing _Memoirs_ have supplied us
with many circumstances relating to the caricaturist. It appears that
Angelo, Bannister, and Rowlandson were schoolfellows at an early period
of life, and they were all as youths excessively fond of their pencils;
although it was reserved for Rowlandson alone to attain proficiency in
the fine arts. Angelo, like George Selwyn, Colonel Hanger, and some
few notorieties, was fond of attending executions, visiting jails,
and similar lugubrious exhibitions. Among his visits to prisons he
encountered some curious characters. Thomas Simmons, the subject of
the present plate, was one of the unfortunates with whom he became
acquainted on one of these eccentric excursions.
From the sketch, Thomas Simmons appears a mere dwarf of a man, a
harmless-looking and apparently half-witted individual, realising the
traditional idea of _Simple Simon_. This murderer has heavy manacles
round his puny limbs. Groups of miserable prisoners, and hard-featured
jailors are in the rear, and the heavy iron doors of Newgate afford an
appropriate background.
_November 10, 1807._ _Directions to Footmen._ Rowlandson del. Published
by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside (273).--'Take off the largest dishes, and
set them on with one hand, to show the ladies your vigour and strength
of back, but always do it between two ladies, that if the dish happens
to slip, the soup or sauce may fall on their clothes, and not daub the
floor; by this practice, two of our brethren, my worthy friends, got
considerable fortunes.'--A stalwart awkward-looking yokel, in a showy
livery, is carrying out these useful directions to the letter. While
grinning at his horrified mistress, he is upsetting a tureen held
loosely in his right hand, over a handsome damsel, and is flooding the
table-cloth, to the horror of the company, and the delight of a poodle,
which is revelling in the stream. In the clumsy footman's left hand is
held a dish, from which he is calmly allowing the joint, gravy, &c.,
to glide over the back of another dog who is less pleased than his
companion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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