LWL MSS 41
Acquired September 2021
Eight manuscript volumes: Essays on various subjects written at Univesity while at Glasgow, 1805-1806; copies of letters from Portugal 1812; Journal in Spain 1813; Journal in Lombardy, Austria, Prussia 1815; Sketchbook 1815; Journal in the north of Italy and France 1816; Journal to Spain1818; Diary 1830-1843. Also with two copies of Holland’s publication, General view of the agriculture of Cheshire (1808) and two issues of his Recollections of past life (1868).
LWL MSS 41
Acquired September 2021
A group portrait of various doctors and quacks, including Mrs Mapp, Dr. Joshua Ward and John Taylor. A version of the print also published with lettering “The company of undertakers”. The three named quacks occupy the top, twelve other ‘doctors’ are situated in the lower half; most of them have gold canes held up to their noses, one is dipping his finger into a urinal while another holds it.
Hogarth 817.00.00.24
Acquired January 2021
First line: Fair lady, lay your costly robes aside …
Woodcut image: a scene in a room with two windows and a table with a lighted candle. On the right Death wearing a crown and holding an arrow and hourglass stands next to a lady who is holding her child’s hand. Beside the child stands a gentleman (doctor). On the ground at Death’s feet are a shovel and emblems of power(?).
822.00.00.64+
Acquired June 2019
“Pushed by Knighton and pulled by Lady Conyngham, George IV, more corpulent than in other prints, walks in an ornate circular stand or support on castors (as used for toddling children, cf. British Museum satires no. 7497) towards Virginia Water (right), his fishing-rod against his shoulder. He wears a hat with a wide curving brim inscribed á la Townsend [cf. British Museum satires no. 10293], double-breasted tail-coat, breeches, and pumps; his right arm rests on the ring of the stand, in his hand is a small book: Old Izack [Walton]. From the stand dangles an ornate reticule: Fish Bag; the base is decorated with two fat squatting mandarins. Lady Conyngham looks over her right shoulder at the King, puffing from her effort, but singing Rule Britannia; the crossbar at which she tugs is a sceptre. She wears an enormous ribbon-trimmed bonnet and décolletée dress; the hook from the King’s line has caught in her dress which strains across her vast posterior as she leans forward. Knighton wears a court-suit with bag-wig and sword. He pushes with both hands with great concentration, singing, Send him Victorious. In his coat-pocket are a clyster-pipe and a paper: Petition of the Unborn Babes. A signpost terminating in a realistic hand points To Virginia Water. There is a background of trees and water.”–British Museum online catalogue.
827.06.27.01+
Acquired March 2019
Print with twelve panels relating to the affair of Mary Toft, “the rabbit breeder”: from top left, she is held aloft by two men and a Harlequin or Merry Andrew, she has a rabbit in either hand; she pursues a rabbit while working in a field; she dreams of being impregnated by rabbit, Cupid is shown on a cloud beside her bed holding a rabbit in either hand; she is seated in a chair attended by two women while the two men and Harlequin discuss the monstrous birth; Harlequin demonstrates that he can express milk from her breast; Harlequin feels “the rabbets leapin in her belly” while two men look on; she sits on the edge of a bed and Harlequin kneels to seize a rabbit that emerges from her skirts while a doctor raises his hands in surprise, wishing to anatomize the animal; Harlequin stands behind a table holding a balance in which he weighs dung removed from the rabbit explaining to two men that this will allow him to judge whether the animal had “breath’d in air”; doctors and midwives discuss the phenomenon around a table and Harlequin enters claiming that the birth must be “praeternatural”; a crowd of gentlemen are welcomed to the bagnio in Leicester Square where Toft is housed; two men spy from the door to Toft’s room as another hands her a dead rabbit; Toft, weeping, is led away to Bridewell by two constables while Harlequin “sits upon Repenting stool, Cursing his fate in being made a Fool. See British Museum online catalogue.
726.00.00.26+
Acquired September 2018
“Dr. James Graham, the famous quack, stands on a small platform or pedestal, addressing an audience of both sexes who sit and stand in front of him. He stands rather to the right of the design looking left, his right hand raised, his left holding a rolled paper as in British Museum Satire no. 6324. He wears a bag-wig and ruffled shirt. Those of the audience whose faces are visible are probably portraits, but only Fox, Wilkes, and (?) Perdita Robinson can be identified. Three persons sit on a raised seat immediately under the lecturer and with their backs towards him: a young man puts his arm round a lady who draws back with a coy expression; the third is Fox who sits gloomily impassive, his head supported on his hand, perhaps annoyed at the way in which Mrs. Robinson looks towards the man standing next her, who stands on the extreme right in profile to the left. He is slim and wears the fashionable riding-dress but is very ugly. Two rows of people sit on forms facing the lecturer. Others stand on the left. Wilkes is in profile to the right, an elderly beau with receding hair, sunken eyes, and broken teeth.”–British Museum online catalogue.
783.02.12.01+
Acquired May 2017