A girl, in profile to the left, seated on the box-seat of a four-wheeled cart drawn by a pair of horses. She is receiving a driving-lesson from a man who sits behind her on the edge of the cart in which is a sheaf of straw. On the side of the cart is a board inscribed "tom longtrot's academy for young ladies. Driving taught to an inch, ladies compleatly finish'd in a fortnight, for gig, whiskey, or phaeton: single lesson half a crown, five for half a guinea". The girl holds whip and reins very awkwardly, the hind wheel passes over one of a litter of small pigs which is with a sow in the foreground. A short stout citizen (left) clutches a post or mile-stone in alarm at the prospect of being run over. The driver wears an elaborate hat with feathers and a muslin dress, very unlike the dress of the fashionable women-whips of the day, cf. Bmsat 6114. Beneath the title is engraved, "hammersmith turnpike", and,
"when once the women taken the reins in hand,
' tis then too true, that men have no command. "
behind the cart the upper part of the toll-house appears, with the head of a grinning spectator, probably the toll-keeper. By the toll is a large rectangular georgian house with a square pillared porch inscribed "will-son". This is the inn, the bell and anchor, which still exists (1932), altered, at the corner of blyth road close to olympia. 2 january 1782
mezzotint. Date: 1782. Dimensions: Height: 352 mm; Width: 250 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. A Lesson Westward - or a Morning Visit to Betsy Cole (BM J,5.82)
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