Miseries of London

Thomas Rowlandson

Miseries of London

London, 1807, this example on Whatman paper of 1828

Etching and stipple

Original hand colouring

140 x 190 mm

£180

Two burly women, almost naked above the waist, fight vigorously, surrounded by a yelling crowd. The scene is an irregular space surrounded by old-fashioned houses, and crowded with spectators, eager or disgusted. In the foreground (l.) an apple-woman’s barrow is upset and she sprawls across it to grab the head of a little boy who is collecting apples. Among the crowd are a porter carrying a trunk on his knot, and a woman with a basket of vegetables on her head. Adjacent houses have inscriptions: ‘British Gin’, ‘Licensed Lottery Office Tickets Shares’, and (with the sign of three balls) ‘Mony Lent on Pledges Gripp Licensed Pawn Brokers’. Below: ‘Being a compulsory spectator and auditor of a brawling and scratching match, between two drunken Drabs in consequence of a sudden influx of company by whom you are hemmed in an hundred yards deep in every direction, leaving you no chance of escape till the difference of sentiment between the ladies is adjusted – where you stand you are (that is I was) closely bounded in front by a barrow of cats meet the unutterable contents of which employ your eyes and nose, while your ear is no less fully engaged by the Tarterean yell of its driver.’