Charles Williams
Iohnny MacCree at Confession
London, S W Fores March 29th. 1805
Etching
Original hand colouring
350 x 250 mm
£180
Pitt on the right, as a bare-footed monk with a large tonsure, sits in a high Gothic chair. Melville, in Highland dress and holding his feathered bonnet, kneels before him in profile to the right., saying, "Ye mun knaw – I have got into a little wee scrape, – and as ye knaw you and I ganarally rowd in the same boat – I want to ask your advice." Pitt looks agitated, and puts out his hands with a deprecating gesture; he says: "Dont implicate me I request – I that am compleatly Imacculate. Except laying a few trifling Taxes on Income, Births, Marriages, Burials, Houses, Windows, Tea, Coffee, Wine, Horses, Dogs, Carriages, Wills, Agreements, Servants, Hats, Receipts, News-Papers, Letters – Bricks, Tiles, Pepper, Salt, Cyder, Perry, Malt, Hops, – and such like iconsiderable things – , I dont think I ever did a paw – paw – action in all my Life. – however I’ll endeavour to procure you absolution, for old acquaintance sake." BM 10378