The Last Stage of Cruelty, or a Merciful Example ox Quaerism ( sic ) at Brighton

Charles Williams

The Last Stage of Cruelty, or a Merciful Example ox Quaerism ( sic ) at Brighton

London, S W Fores Sept. 1st. 1806

Etching

Original hand-colouring

380 x 260 mm

£180

A plainly dressed young man with lan khair falling on his shoulders, bends over a dog, placing his left hand on the head of the trustful animal. With a large brush he applies a smoking liquid to its side, saying; Come here poor Dog! Thee shall not say I called thee names, or beat thee, for that would be cruel!! But I will anoint thee with Oil, and moisten thy sides with my pure linnement. The scene is a yard with a high paling, outside an open door leading to the dispensing- room of the Quaker, evidently anapothecary. Just inside the room is a largae smoking jar of Oil of Vitriol ; on the door-step is a dish of smoking vitriol. On the shelf above are displayed jars, bottles, and drawers of an apothecary, with a pestle and mortar. A woman leaning out of an upper window of an adjacent house in the backgroud looks down on the yard and shouts; Ah Obadiah, that decietfull whining Cant, to allure the poor Animal, in order to inflict the most Diabolical unheard of Cruelty on him, shall not go unpunished. Below the main title reads: Dedicated to the Society of Quakers–N.B. the side of the Poor Animal was entirely burned through the nextDay and his Bowells actuall ( sic ) fell out on the Ground— Possibly referring to John Glaisyer, a very prominent Brighton Quaker, with a chemist’s shop in Castle Square. He took a leading part in the erection of a new Meeting House which opened in 1805. BM 10637