Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Sir Cecils budget for paying the national debt

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Thomas Rowlandson
1756-1827

Sir Cecils budget for paying the national debt

Published

[London] : Pubd. March 30th, 1784, by Mrs. Dacheray, St. James's Street, [1784]

etching :
image: 217 x 330 mm; plate mark: 230 x 320 mm; sheet: 233 x 330 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2501
Notes
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

A scene outside Chelsea Hospital; the building (left) is falling in ruins, columns from the pediment lie on the ground, and among them are the terrified pensioners fleeing from the débâcle. Some lie prostrate, crushed by the pillars, others are escaping as best they can by the help of their sticks and crutches. In the distance (right) Sir Cecil Wray is being mobbed by a group of maidservants and by a pensioner who raises his crutch to smite. Two women attack him with brooms, one saying, "Tax Servant Maids you brute, and starve poor Old Soldiers a fine Member of Parliament". Another woman empties a chamber-pot over his head. A dog barks at the fray. Cf. British Museum online catalog.

Associated names
Darchery, Elizabeth, approximately 1739-1819, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints