A view from the street of the bookseller William Darton’s shop at No. 58 Holborn in London, with the shop window filled with prints and books. Above the windows Darton advertises the scope of his wares: “Books in all languages on the arts, sciences &c.; Maps, plans, charts, prints & games; Works of merit soon as published. A woman and two children are shown looking in the windows while a second woman and child are shown entering the shop. A horse-drawn carriage enters the scene from the right. On the left, a man sits beside a lamppost with a basker and dog at his side.
- Title: William Darton, bookseller [graphic].
- Publication: London : William Darton, 58, Holborn Hill, 1822, where may be had maps and prints wholesale, [1822]
File 66 822 W716
Acquired November 2021
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 1 of A harlot’s progress: A scene outside the Bell Inn: a country girl, Moll Hackabout, having just arrived on the York Wagon (seen on the right), meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (Mother Needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. In the lower left the girl’s initials “H.M.” (M[ary?] Hackabout, initials reversed on this copy) are on her portmanteau, next to which is a basket with a goose with a note around its neck, “For my Loving Cosen in Tems Stret in London”, presumably the person who has failed to meet her. In the background a woman hangs out her laundry on a balcony. A clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter as his horse feeds on hay next to the wagon. In the back of the wagon, four other country girls sit holding onto a rail.
