Satire on lord bute and on william hogarth for his support of bute showing a large jack boot from which rises a pole crowned with a wigmaker's block-head. A star and garter and a large spur are attached to the boot; the block-head is topped by a scotch bonnet adorned with a white jacobite cockade; a long tail curves down to the boot, in mockery of hogarth's line of beauty. A paper, lettered "briton" lies across the instep of the boot and another lettered "a scotch peace" lies beside it. The pro-bute journalist arthur murphy bows obsequiously to the boot, a paper lettered "auditor" attached to his back. A clergyman in large spectacles kneels beside him holding up his hands and saying "bless me, it verifies the old saying a blockhead & a fool has the most powerful tail". Scotsmen kneel behind, one saying "if he has not a heart of oak he has a head of oak, he has indeed". On the step beneath the boot is written "oh' garth fect 1762"; a palette and an impression of hogarth's "the times" rest on the step. Hogarth, an old man with ass's ears, reaches out to charles churchill who has knocked off his hat with a whip; he cries, "dam it charles what have you done to me you’ll make me run mad" (a reference to churchill's attack on the artist in the north briton, no. 17, and to sandby's print "the author run mad" (bm satires 3244)). Churchill, holding the "north briton", responds "i'll spare none of you from the top of the bonnet to the sole of the boot". In the background on the right the sun rises behind a flight of stairs down which the duke of cumberland steps, he too holds a whip and turns to his nephew, the duke of york, saying "lends a hand ned to scourge the worshippers of a blockhead i'll warn 'em presently as i did in '45". York, dressed as a sailor, replies "i'll lend you a hand, my prince of bold actions". Two columns of verse below attacking bute's ambition. 1762
etching. Date: 1762. Dimensions: Height: 287 mm; Width: 198 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: William Hogarth. Collection: British Museum. The Boot & the Block-Head (BM 1868,0808.4252)
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