“Wetherell (left), an invalid in dressing-gown and night-cap, reclines in an arm-chair, exhausted but laughing. Facing him stands Eldon in deep dejection, saying, with both hands raised, ‘Poor Boroughbridge! how is it with you?’ Cumberland, on the extreme right, stands behind Eldon, covering his face with his handkerchief; he says: ‘Facetious to the last!–It is quite affecting!’ Horace Twiss leans on the back of Wetherell’s chair; Chandos, dressed as a woman, stoops over the patient; both are smiling. Wetherell: ‘All over my friends! just in time to hear my “last speech and dying words”! But dont look so grave about it, I assure you we treat the matter in our house as if it was an excellent joke–to be sent out of the world with a dose of Russell’s purge”! is so droll; & then, we are to have such a merry funeral’. On a commode is a bottle labelled ‘Russell’s purge’. Peel, smiling, and Goulburn, holding a handkerchief to his face and leaning on Peel, watch from the background.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of the original version of the print.
- Title: The last of the Boroughbridges [graphic] / HB [monogram].
- Publication: [London] : Pub. by S. Gans, Southampton Street, Strand, March 14th, 1831.
831.03.14.01+
Acquired March 2018