Unkle Toby and Corporal Trim : Raising fortifacations [sic] for the good of the nation / JB.

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Unkle Toby and Corporal Trim : Raising fortifacations [sic] for the good of the nation / JB.
etching
image: 201 x 316 mm; sheet: 230 x 329 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2542
Published: 
[London] : Publish'd as the Act directs, March 8th 1786. by H: Humphrey N° 51. New Bond Street, [1786]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Title from item.
A satire on the defeat of Richmond's widely unpopular scheme for the fortification of Portsmouth and Plymouth.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows the Duke of Richmond as Uncle Toby (in Sterne's 'Tristram Shandy') standing (right)and directing the operations of Pitt as Corporal Trim, who stands with a raised pickaxe, turning his head to receive his orders. Both wear military uniform. Pitt's grenadier's cap is on the ground beside him. A crutch is under Richmond's left arm, the other crutch outstretched in his left hand; in his right he holds a paper on which is the plan of a star-shaped fort inscribed 'Plans of Fortifications Plymouth Portsmouth'. The sentry-box is behind him. They stand on the sea-shore; three men-of-war (left) are at anchor flying the British flag, the nearest is the 'Artois' (a prize of the American war). Above the ships, among clouds, the Speaker, Cornwall, leans forward, one hand resting on his table, the other extended; from his mouth issues a blast inscribed 'Stop there Trim'; cannons in embrasures and on a gun-carriage rest on the clouds, pointing towards Pitt. On the ground at Pitt's feet is an overturned wheelbarrow inscribed 'Useless to be Disposed of', with a pick and spade, and a roll, 'Plans of...' . Cf. British Museum online catalog.

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