“A mounted officer with drawn sabre heads a procession of ‘Volunteers’ linked by a chain to his horse and to each other. The horse is a well-bred animal with handsome trappings, but the rider is lean and has torn breeches. He is followed by a file of three whose necks are attached to the horse and whose hands or arms are pinioned. All are miserable wretches, barelegged and ragged; the last, less abject, has sabots and takes snuff. He is chained to the neck of a donkey on whose back is a pannier containing three despairing conscripts. To the animal’s tail is tied a low truck on which a moribund shackled man lies on his back, his knees drawn up. To the truck is chained, in a stooping position, a man whose hands are tied behind his back, his nails being long talons. Birds, scenting carrion, fly towards the procession. Below the design: ‘Dedicated (by an Eye Witness) to the Volunteers of Great Britain’.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Printmaker: Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
- Title: French volunteers marching to the conquest of Great Britain [graphic] / C.L.S.
- Publication: London : Pubd. Octr. 25th, 1803, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. Jamess [sic] Street, [25 October 1803]
803.10.25.01++
Acquired March 2020
