accidental, and the amusement verges on peril of a terrible character.
A temporary theatre, _Cockburn's Company_, is on fire, and the
spectators are escaping as best they may. The entrance is from a
balcony reached by a flight of steps, and the frightened spectators are
pouring out of the building, which is burning furiously, and throwing
themselves pellmell down the steps, at the bottom of which they are
sprawling, kicking, and plunging in fright and confusion. Certain buxom
damsels are climbing over the balustrade and dropping from the balcony,
with the musicians, into the arms of those below. A bill on the booth
announces the _Last Night, Pizarro_ and _Don Juan, A Shower of Real
Fire_, and _A View of the Infernal Regions_. Crowds are scudding
away in the distance, and the other attractions of the fair are at a
standstill.
_October 25, 1810._ _An Old Ewe Drest Lamb Fashion._ Published by T.
Tegg. A deceptive old tabby, clad in a juvenile style, is dashing
along in a high poke-bonnet; three or four Don Juans of eccentric
exterior are hurrying after her to tender their attentions, an act of
gallantry they are likely to regret on closer inspection. The quotation
offered as _A Misery of Human Life_ runs thus: 'Walking fast and far to
overtake a woman from whose shape and air as viewed _en derrière_ you
have decided that her face is angelic, till, on eagerly turning round
as you pass her, you are petrified by a Gorgon.'
[Illustration: SPITFIRES.]
_October 25, 1810._ _Spitfires._ Published by T. Tegg (44).
_October 25, 1810._ _Dropsy Courting Consumption._ Published by T. Tegg
(45).--Outside a building marked _Mausoleum_--a dwarf rotunda beside a
slender column--kneels a round ball of a suitor, who, it would seem, is
destined never to recover his perpendicular; he is suing at the feet of
an attenuated nymph, of straight and bony proportions, who it appears
is in the last stage of wasting away. In the grounds a corpulent lady
and a declining-looking gentleman of the Laurence Sterne type are
contemplating a statue of Hercules.
_November 1, 1810._ _Doctor Gallipot placing his Fortune at the feet of
his Mistress._ 'Throw physic to the dogs.' Republished. (See 1808.)
_November 1, 1810._ _Kitchen Stuff._ Published by T. Tegg (43).--A
scene of low life below stairs. A fire is roaring up the kitchen
grate, and a fat old cook, slumbering in an armchair drawn up to the
kitchen table, has her feet resting on the chimneypiece, and a glass
of 'cherry bounce' held in her chubby hand, to refresh her after
the exertions of the day. A younger and proportionately comely and
comfortable-looking kitchen-maid is also stealing 'forty winks,' with
her head resting against the chimneypiece; while a fat black footman,
who completes this evidently easy-going household, is indulging in the
luxury of repose and pillowing his slumbering woolly pate on the ample
shoulders of his shapely neighbour.
[Illustration: A HIT AT BACKGAMMON.]
_November 19, 1810._ _A Hit at Backgammon._ Published by T. Tegg (No.
46).
_November 20, 1810._ _Medical Despatch, or Doctor Doubledose Killing
Two Birds with One Stone._ Published by T. Tegg (47).--Reclining back
in an armchair is an old invalid lady, evidently at the last gasp; her
end is made still more certain by opium and composing draughts placed
ready to her hand. On the armchair of the ghastly sufferer leans a
pretty buxom girl in the flush of womanhood, who is wavering between
grief and rapture--tears for her departing relative and regard for
the caresses of the practitioner, who is dismissing his patient and
courting a bride at the same moment. While one hand of the perfidious
Doctor is carelessly holding the pulse of the sinking woman his arm
is thrown round the neck of the blooming maiden, his fat features are
expressive of maudlin tenderness, and his eyes are turned upwards in
awkward admiration.
_November 20, 1810._ _Bath Races._ Published by T. Tegg (49).--The race
appropriately starts from 'Cripple's Corner;' the halt, the maimed, and
the lame are the competitors; it is, in fact, a race of Bath chairs and
crutches, all tearing and tumbling down hill and blowing in the wind;
the gouty hangers behind being urged forward, pushed, whipped, and
cheered on by the delighted spectators. The city of Bath is slightly
indicated in the rear.
_November 30, 1810._ _Doctor Drainbarrel conveyed Home in a
Wheelbarrow, in order to take his Trial for Neglect of Family Duty._
Published by T. Tegg (23).
[Illustration: DR. DRAINBARREL CONVEYED HOME IN A WHEELBARROW.]
_November 30, 1810._ _After Sweet Meat comes Sour Sauce, or Corporal
Cazey got into the Wrong Box._ Rowlandson del. Published by T. Tegg
(24).--The Corporal has incautiously been paying a secret visit to a
fine, plump and well-favoured damsel, on whose affections, it would
seem, the man of war has no legitimate claim. The lady is snugly
disposing her lover in a strong-box, with iron clamps, probably the
sea-chest of the lawful proprietor of the chamber. Before closing
the lid on the captive swain the buxom maid, at whose waist hangs
the key of the chest, is favouring the suitor with a parting kiss.
An old 'salt,' his few remaining hairs bristling with indignation
and resentment, is looking in at the window and surveying the entire
transaction before making his entrance on the scene. That the Corporal
has fairly got into the 'wrong box' is further hinted by a trap at his
side, in which an unfortunate rat is securely imprisoned.