Artist: James Sayers. Published: Hannah Humphrey. No title. Ritson stands at a desk in profile to the Ieft, writing in a large book, both pages headed 'Common Place'. His finger- and toe-nails are talons; he dips his pen in an ink-stand inscribed 'Gall', and has written: 'Moses an Impostor the prophets old Cloaths Men of Judæa Warburton a fool Dr Percy a Liar Warton an infamous Liar a pipeer [Ritson adopted a system of spelling chiefly characterized by a duplication of the letter e. 'D.N.B.'] better than a parson'. He wears a tightly buttoned overcoat and a top-hat; his toes project through broken shoes. From his pocket projects a pamphlet: 'The Atheist's pocket Companion.' He stands on a slab of (damaged) papers headed 'Dr Percy's Antient Balla[ds]'. his feet is a large open book; on one page is a half length portrait of Thomas Warton stabbed through with a knife and fork; on the other, 'History of English Poetry'. The room is filled with heavy folio volumes and vegetable products; there is a small window with cracked panes. A cow (head only visible) munches at a basket of large leaves beside a paper: 'Bill of Fare \ Nettle Soup \ Sour Crout \ Horse Beans \ Onions Leeks'. On a top shelf an emaciated cat, heavily chained, strains in vain towards two rats who nibble a bunch of candles; beside it is an open book: 'Abstinence from animal Food a moral duty'. Below, 'The Bible' slants across a gap in the book-shelf labelled 'Old Romances'. On Ritson's desk (left) is a pile of books on which squats a frog; on it vegetables are heaped. Below the design: 'Impiger iracundus, inexorabilis acer [Horace, 'Ars Poetica', 121] Fierce meagre pale no Commentator's friend. Purs. Lit. [In Theron's form, mark Ritson next contend; Fierce, . . . [ut supra]. T. J. Mathias, 'Pursuits of Literature', Dialogue II, l. 245 f.] Let his Portion be with the Beasts in the Grass of the Earth Let his heart be changed from Man's and let a Beasts heart be given unto him And he was driven from Men and did eat Grass till his hairs were grown as Eagles feathers and his Nails like Birds Claws - 4th Ch Daniel'. Description from the British Museum.