The state waggoner and John Bull, or, The waggon too much for the donkeys! : together with, a distant view of the New Coalition among Johnny's old horses / Gillray del & fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The state waggoner and John Bull, or, The waggon too much for the donkeys! : together with, a distant view of the New Coalition among Johnny's old horses / Gillray del & fect.
London : Publish'd March 14th 1804, by H Humphrey, 27 St James's Street, [1804]
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.619
Published: 
London : Publish'd March 14th 1804, by H. Humphrey, 27 St James's Street, [1804]
Provenance: 
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary: 

Print shows a wagon drawn by eight asses and stuck fast, up to the axles in water; the asses strain hard to drag it up a steep slope to dry land. Its dilapidated tilt is labelled 'British State Waggon 1804'. The wagoner, Addington, kneels on an adjacent bank, and shouts to a fat and jovial John Bull, dressed as a volunteer, who stands on the opposite bank of the deeply sunken lane, his bulldog beside him. Addington wears a smock, but his powdered hair is in a black bag. He holds his long whip and his hat in his right. hand, and extends his left arm, shouting, " - help, Johnny Bull! - help! - my Waggon's stuck fast in the Slough! - help! help." John points behind him at thirteen horses with human heads, saying: " - stuck fast in the Slough! - ay to be sure! - why dost'nt put better Cattle to thy Wain? - look at them there Horses doing o' nothing at all! - what ether they matches in Colour, if they do but drag the Waggon out o' the Mud! - don't ye see how the very thoughts o' being put into Harness makes 'em all love and nubble one another?" The horses have been tentatively identified as: Lord Spencer, Carlisle (or Lauderdale), Erskine, Wilberforce, Lansdowne (or Norfolk), Grey, Buckingham, Fox, Grenville, Pitt, Canning, Sheridan, and Windham.

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