The Westminster deserter drum'd out of the regiment

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Thomas Rowlandson
1756-1827
The Westminster deserter drum'd out of the regiment
etching
image: 227 x 337 mm; sheet: 238 x 337 mm
Peel 2496
Published: 
[London] : [publisher not identified], [18 May 1784]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Title etched below image.
Printmaker and date of publication from Grego.
Plate reissued in James Hartley's History of the Westminster Election (London : Printed for the editors, 1784), facing page 209.
"The figure of Fox, the crowd, and the procession of maidservants closely resemble those in BMSat 6576: one must have been copied from the other, or from a common source."--Curatorial comments, British Museum online catalogue.
Library's copy is closely trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

"Sir Cecil Wray (left) is being drummed away from the hustings; Sam House, the central figure, beats a drum, looking at Wray. On the right, ignoring Wray, stands Fox addressing the populace, a cheering crowd behind him; he holds a flag on which is the figure of Britannia seated, holding the staff and cap of Liberty, and the words 'Champion of the People'. He says, "Friends & Fellow Citizens I cannot find words to express my feelings to you upon this Victory". Wray walks beside a procession which marches to Sam House's drum. It is headed by Chelsea pensioners with wooden legs, who scowl at him; one carries a crutch over his shoulder. They have two flags, inscribed respectively 'May all public Deserters feel public Resentment' (Wray had deserted the cause of Fox who nominated him for Westminster in 1782, see British Museum Satires No. 5998), and 'Chealsea Hospital'. They are followed by a detachment of maidservants, with a flag inscribed 'Tax on Maid Servants'; they carry over their shoulders a broom, a brush, a mop, a shovel. A crowd cheers frantically, hats are waved at the procession and at Fox. Behind Fox is part of the portico of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, the scene of his triumph at the hustings, see British Museum Satires No. 6590, &c."--British Museum online catalogue.

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