See no. 15983. A sequence of vignettes. [1] 'lodging at a farm house'. Pickle, angrily morose, leans against the table in a bare old-fashioned room, looking at the farmer's wife in the doorway who is in the dress of c. 1750 with quilted petticoat (cf. No. 11485). She holds up a tattered book: 'i ha gotten a book sir her es half the whole duty of man— and we shant be so dull presently as they be going to toll the bell for the tailor as is just dead'. [2] 'weeds'. Walking in the fields, pickles gives a coin to one of two bucolic children. [3] 'village gossip'. The barber shaves pickle, holding his nose, while the farmer's wife peeps round a folding screen (covered with prints) to listen avidly. Barber: 'yes sir, one thought you mad another you was a fraudulent bankrupt, hiding from your creditors. Mrs maggot said you might be a papist conspirator & the beadles wife feared you might hang yourself & cause trouble to the parish'. [4] 'thorns'. His coat-tail is rent by a briar as he takes a country walk. [5] 'crossing the farmyard'. About to cross a stile, his coat is seized by a savage but chained watchdog; a turkey gobbles, geese hiss, a boar manifests hostility, pigs scamper. Beyond the stile a menacing bull awaits him. A grin¬ning yokel looks over the paling. [6] 'patience'. He sits on a tomb in the churchyard. [7] 'rural evening walk'. He sits on a bank under a tree, his feet in a swamp, while two grinning yokels watch from behind the tree, one with his fingers to his mouth, whistling. Pickle: 'a plague upon those rascally clowns sending one round about down the bank, over the moor—through deadmans lane & the halfpenny hatch—and now up to my knees in this swamp and—good lord theres a thieves whistle'. [8] 'a morning walk'. Reading as he walks, he is about to step into a stream. [9] 'blue devils'. He sits in his farmhouse room, his spectacles pushed up, a glass on the table beside him, beset by little demons, as in no. 14598, &c. One holds up a noose behind his shoulder; another points to an imp whose head is covered by a big book: 'faux pas', which a third devil points out to pickle. Poised above him is a bill-sticker-demon with a poster: 'bank stopt payment'. On the table is one with hour-glass and javelin, its body a tombstone: 'to the mem[ory] of pickles'. Two tiny creatures manipulate a watch, setting back the hands. Pickle: 'was ever any poor wretch so beset by the blue devils as i am—not ten o'clock yet, not so much as a mouse stirring through the village, not a soul to speak to'. 1 july 1829
etching. Date: 1829. Dimensions: Height: 245 mm; Width: 350 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. Rural retirement. Pl. 2. (BM 1870,0514.59)
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