Meditations among the tombs., Thomas Rowlandson, 1790-1810 (c.)

A gravedigger and a young woman making love against a church wall at left, at the corner of which is a priapic stone carving, a shovel and skull at their feet; a burial taking place in the graveyard behind at right; the surrounding tombs decorated with phallic and vulval symbols and various legends: 'life is a jest / and all things shew it / i thought so once / but now i know it'; 'herveys meditiation'; 'to the memory of roger pego'; 'here lies entombed / beneath these bricks / the scabbard of ten thousand pricks. ' hand-coloured etching with stipple. Date: 1790-1810 (c.). Dimensions: Height: 164 mm (trimmed); Width: 195 mm (trimmed). Medium: paper. Depicted People: James Hervey. Collection: British Museum. Meditations among the tombs. (BM 1977,U.524)