Dressing for the House on the — March 1829

William Heath
Dressing for the House on the – March 1829
London, T. McLean March 24th 1829
Etching
Original hand-colouring
260x370mm
Trimmed to border
£140
John Singleton Copley 1st Baron Lyndhurst stands in his dressing room wearing his Chancellor’s wig, shirtsleeves, black breeches, black waistcoat and stockings. He puts one arm into a ragged black coat held out for him by his liveried valet who says to him ‘ Your Lordship’s Coat is become very threadbare for you know you turned it only last year & it has been turned before that’ ……. can’t you afford to buy a new one now her Ladyship earns her own Expenses? On a settee on the right is the Mace, Purse of the Great Seal and his Chancellor’s gown. Lyndhurst is here accused of being a careerist, political turncoat and cuckold. He had contrived to remain Chancellor under the disparate regimes of Canning, Goderich and Wellington. The ambitious Lady Lyndhurst apparently hated her husband as a husband and had taken as lovers firstly the enormously wealthy Lord Dudley and secondly the Duke of Cumberland, however, she stuck to him closely as a partner and was reputed to labour ceaselessly to advance his political career. (See also no 178) BM 15705.