The female agent
[London] : Pubd. March 1809 by Walker No. 7 Cornhill, March 1809.
The verses are bordered by spears which serve as posts for plump purses, symmetrically attached to them.
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Mrs. Clarke, seated on a dais, receives applicants for commissions who advance through a doorway (left). She sits on a drum, wearing a cocked hat and military sash over a white dress, and holds up a sword. A short fat soldier holds over her head a Union flag with the white horse of Hanover. Two soldiers stand at attention with fixed bayonets behind her, and a fat trumpeter blows his trumpet. Another Union flag, without the white horse, flies from the corner of the large dais. On the wall hangs a notice: 'Half-pay Commissions at Half Price for Ready Money'. The applicants press forward in a bunch, headed by a fat and gouty 'cit' hobbling on two sticks, behind whom is a chimneysweep. The first of three verses: 'Come all you brave Fellows who wish for Promotion. ... My Master wants Money, & so does his Clarke. / But forget not &c.'
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.