The Bold Attempt, 1773

Satire on country life. In a churchyard, a soldier attempts to embrace a young woman who pushes him away, her dog crouches on a nearby tomb inscribed 'memento mori' and growls; two village boys tie bones to the string of a kite to which leaves from "hervy's meditations among the tombs" are attached. On the left an old woman coming out of the church pulls at the soldier's shoulder-knot and raises her walking stick; behind her a small girl land two women look on anxiously one older woman raising both her hands and her eyes, the clergyman looks heavenwards and behind him a small old man leaning on a crutch squints through a telescope. On the left two grave diggers grin at the scene; beside them is the gravestone of "charles cheatham". Beyond the wall of the churchyard, on the left, a man on horseback laughs at the scene, a copy of "the buck's delight"protrudes from his pocket; a black attendant wearing a jockey's cap holds another horse. On the right, behind an obelisk topped by an urn, a man and a woman holding a baby look over the scene from an upstairs window; after john collet. 1773 etching and engraving. Date: 1773. Dimensions: Height: 375 mm; Width: 480 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: John Hervey. Collection: British Museum.