One of a set of prints on the suspected marriage of the Prince of Wales; the title is from Bickerstaffe's popular comic opera "The Padlock" (1768). Cf. British Museum catalog.
The scene is the churchyard of a country church, a Gothic building partly visible on the extreme right Mrs. Fitzherbert (right), in a riding-habit and a large feathered hat, leads the Prince (left) towards the church door; in her left hand is a riding-switch and a padlock with a chain. She turns to him, saying, "Oh! fie my dear, let's go unto the Alter; And then you know our conscience cannot falter"; the Prince, in riding-dress, looks towards her, but holds out his hat towards a flat gravestone, on which his right foot rests, saying,"'Twas there the famous Catherine W-----[Wade] And the more famous Taylor laid: Who after strugling hours two; Yielded their breath: let's do so too." The tombstone is inscribed: Here on this Stone were laid Tom Stitch and Kitty W . . . . Twas here they languishd here they sigh'd And here dear Souls they Four times died. The Prince's friends and satellites peep at the couple from behind tombstones: in the foreground on the extreme right kneels Louis Weltje, and behind a rectangular tomb on the extreme left are the profile heads of Fox and Hanger; Fox says, "Will they stop in the Porch"; Hanger says, "And follow the Taylors Example"; near them North, asleep, supports his head on a stone inscribed "He is not Dead But Sleepeth here", in the distance (right) a man in riding-dress crouches behind a tomb.