The fall of Icarus / Js. Gillray fect.

Print shows Lord Temple, naked, with large feathered wings, attempting to fly after Buckingham, who is soaring upwards. Feathers, which are quill pens, fall from his wings, and he is about to descend heavily on to a viciously pointed stake which is planted in the cobbles of the roadway. His wings are splashed with red, i.e. with sealing-wax. The stake is inscribed 'Stake out of Public-Hedge!' Buckingham (as Daedalus), whom distance makes much smaller than his bulky nephew, is borne up on intact, outspread wings inscribed 'Tellership of the Exchequer'. Both are struck by broad slanting beams from a sun in the upper right corner of the design containing the head of George III. On the opposite side of the wide roadway is a house representing the Paymaster's house in Whitehall. A servant in livery stands at the door handing up a package to a man in a cart inscribed 'Stationary Office', which is piled with similar packages and bundles of pens. Clouds of black smoke rise from the chimneys but are deflected by the sun.