A keen-sighted Politician warming his Imagination, 13 June 1795
Scope and Contents
Artist: James Gillray. Published: Hannah Humphrey. Grenville stands on a hearth-rug, his back to a blazing fire (right), holding up to his face an open book inscribed: 'Fundamental Principles of Government for 1795', at which he looks sideways and near-sightedly. He raises his coat-tails to warm his bulky posteriors, his left hand in his breeches pocket. On the chimney-piece lie two books: 'Court Cookery' and 'Locke on Human Understanding'. Hanging above it is a 'Map of British Victories on the Continent' on which confused scrawls are depicted. On the back wall (left) is a bracket supporting a bowl of gold-fish, above which is a picture of the 'Treasury Bench': three Ministers seated as if in Parliament, in back view with their coats drawn aside to show their bulky posteriors; the wall of the Treasury forms a background. Beneath the title is etched in two columns:
'"Lord-Pogy boasts no common share of head;
"What plenteous stores of knowledge may contain
"The spacious tenement of Pogy's brain!
"Nature in all her dispensations wise,
"Who form'd his head-piece of so vast a size,
Hath not, 'tis true, neglected to bestow
Its due proportion on the part below;
And hence we reason, that to serve the state
His top & bottom, may have equal weight."'
Description from the British Museum.
Dates
- Creation: 13 June 1795
Conditions Governing Access
Available by appointment in our Reading Room
Extent
1 Item(s)
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
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