The Walking, Committee
£120.00
Anon The Walking, Committee London, The Satirist, 1st April 1811 Aquatint and etching 225x350mm Traces of old folds as published
A sub-human hairy creature with the head of Wardle acts as a nightman or scavenger with a rake and lantern. He is nude, with one cloven hoof; round his waist are papers or pouches inscribed Political Register and Statesman. He stands directed to the right and looking at the spectator, on the edge of a chasm inscribed Gulf of Perdition from which flames rush towards him. He is followed by ducks and three pigs, the ducks say Quack Quack or Corporal Curtis’s Case. One pig has in its mouth a saw inscribed Substitute for a Cat-of-Nine-Tails, another has a wire scourge, an Address to the. . . issues from the mouth of the third. On the edge of the chasm lies a decapitated man, the head resting on a saw inscribed a Humane Substitute for a Cat-o(nine t)ails. Behind is a night cart containing baskets and a short ladder. It is inscribed Burdett, Wardle & Co. (Sca)avengers Night Work Done. From the windows of house men and women fling slops at Wardle.
The savage flogging sentences were one of the abuses attacked by the reformers.
BM117109
