- Museum number
- Object: Kidnapping, or a disgrace to old England
The interior of a bare and dilapidated room in which four exhausted men (one half naked) are chained to the wall. Three smartly dressed soldiers wearing feathered hats are maltreating a sailor: one (left) holds a rope which is round his neck, another clutches him by the hair, the third (right), standing behind his back, raises a bludgeon. The sailor cries "Murder - Murder oh." The three soldiers (left to right) say: "come along & fight the French, an be hanged to you by J ... s man you dont know when you are used well; So you won't be a Gentleman Soldier you thief; B . . . t you what do you call Murder for!" A woman holding a key stands in a doorway on the right, her right fist clenched; she says, "D------n him. strip him."
The four chained captives sit with closed eyes, too exhausted to notice the turmoil. Three scampering rats and an enormous cobweb indicate the character of the room. 26 August 1794.
- Production date
Height: 229 millimetres
Width: 304 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
Recruiting was carried on by the aid of crimps who kept houses (usually public-houses) in which recruits were confined. On 15 Aug. a recruit, one Howe, threw himself from a house in Johnson's Court, Charing Cross, kept by a Mrs. Hynau, or Hanau, and was instantly killed. Riots against such houses followed. 'Lond. Chron.' 16 and 19 Aug.; 'Ann. Reg.' 1794, p. 40; Stanhope, 'Life of Pitt', 1879, ii. 62-4. See BMSat 8486.
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number