D’ont you remember the 5th of November

William Heath (Paul Pry)

D’ont you remember the 5th of November

London, T McLean ca. 1828

Etching

Original hand colouring

260 x 370 mm

£280

Wellington and Peel as “guys”, tied back to back, bestride a broken chair on which they are being carried to bonfire or gibbet. Both wear tall conical caps surmounted by a cross and bound with (green) ribbon. From Wellington’s wrist hangs a dark lantern, while Peel holds matches; both register alarm. Eldon walks in front, holding the (horizontal) chair-back, his back to Wellington; a bloated bishop in a surplice, probably Howley, walks behind, facing Peel and holding the chair-legs. He says ‘No Popery’. Eldon, who wears a sleeveless shirt over his coat, and a shapeless cap, chants ‘up with the ladder down with the Rope’; he faces with grim determination an angry Irish ragamuffin (right) in tattered clothes and apron, but with a barrister’s wig perched on his rough hair to show that he is O’Connell. The latter brandishes shillelagh and fists, shouting, ‘What are goin [sic] to do wid our Guys ye blackguards.’ In the foreground, on the extreme left, is a John Bullish spectator, gaping at the pending impact of Eldon and O’Connell; he says: ‘Dang it they beant agoing to vight about un be-em—.’ Behind him is the head of Cumberland, his mouth open as if shouting.