Satire on conflict between sailors and the law: a group of sailors are defending prostitutes from arrest. The young women have arrived outside a public house in an elegant carriage and a group of constables are attempting to arrest them. On the left, a sailor kisses a woman's cheek while she picks a a watch from his pocket; a younger woman holds a strip ballad, "hearts of oak are our men"; a burly one-legged sailor lifts a woman from the carriage, while another woman looks over her shoulder; the first woman clicks her fingers at a well-fed constable, to the right, in whose pocket is a copy of "the compleat peace-officer"; the constable points to his tipstaff while a sailor grabs his collar, having already knocked another constable to the ground with his cudgel; that constable's wig has fallen to the ground; he holds his hand to a wound on his head and beside him lies his warrant, lettered "middlesex. 1768"; to the right, behind the rear wheel of the carriage more sailors are fighting other constables. In the background, the coachman looks on anxiously from his box; a sailor sits on top of the carraige waving his hat; people crowd enthusiastically at the windows of the public house whose door is surmounted by the figure of a child bacchus and two flower pots and the notice "punch in any quantitiy"; after collett. 1768
mezzotint. Date: 1768. Dimensions: Height: 440 mm; Width: 512 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum.
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