There was an Old Man of Whitehaven…

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,
Who danced a quadrille with a raven;
But they said, ‘It’s absurd
To encourage this bird!’
So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.

From the Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions blog at the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University:

PrintmakerLane, Theodore, 1800-1828.
TitleMoments of pleasure [graphic].
Publication[London] : Pubd. by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s St., 1820 [ca. November]

British Museum online collection:

Seated on a sofa, the Queen, wearing a large feathered hat, receives the news of the dropping of the Bill; beside her is a paper: ‘Bill of Pains Thrown out’. Alderman Wood, in a furred gown more elegant than civic, capers before her, holding up his arms, snapping his fingers, and grinning with delight. The Queen looks up at him, with a gesture of surprised satisfaction; she is caricatured, but better characterized than in other prints, resembling the description given by Creevey of her appearance at the trial on 17 Aug. She sits facing a long scroll on which names of places presenting Addresses are inscribed (see No. 13934, &c.): ‘London’ (in large letters), ‘Westminster’, ‘So[uthwark]’. On the wall behind her is a (flattering) bust portrait of Bergami, wearing his decorations (see No. 13810). In the doorway (left) are the leading members of a body of proletarian addressers; the foremost, with the curved shin-bones known as ‘cheesecutters’ which resulted from rickets, holds a paper: ‘Address to the Queen’; they are received by a thin, sour-looking lady, evidently Lady Anne Hamilton. They have two banners: ‘Queer Fellows’ and ‘St Gi[les]’, but among them is the profile of Hobhouse, the radical M.P. for Westminster. Over the wide doorway is a picture or relief of two little puppets on a string: the King and Queen performing antics while the string is pulled by a fiddler and another man, watched by two bystanders. The room (in Brandenburgh House) is ornately furnished; a heavy curtain is draped round a pillar.
c. November 1820
Hand-coloured etching

British Museum online collection:

A companion plate to No. 13989 by the same artist, and with the same imprint. A Chinese interior resembling that of No. 13986. George IV as a mandarin, languid and ill, sits cross-legged on a low settee. Peacock’s feathers (cf. No. 13299) decorate his round hat. Sidmouth as a Chinese doctor feels his pulse with concern. At the King’s feet is a long rolled document headed ‘List of Addresses presented to Caroline Queen of [Engla]nd’. Behind (right), a melancholy Chinese messenger hands Bloomfield (a Chinese wearing a large sword) a paper: ‘Bill Thrown Out’. The latter registers dismay with raised arms. There is a slanting cloud of smoke as in No. 13986. On the wall is a picture of the Queen, with sword and shield, fighting a dragon. Carved dragons decorate the King’s settee (or throne), and there is a big dragon jar on the right; all the dragons look menacingly towards the King, who rests his right hand on a table on which are decanter, pill-box, &c.
c. November 1820
Hand-coloured etching

There was an Old Man of Cape Horn,
Who wished he had never been born;
So he sat on a chair,
Till he died of despair,
That dolorous Man of Cape Horn.

 

There was an Old Person of Prague,
Who was suddenly seized with the Plague;
But they gave his some butter,
Which caused him to mutter,
And cured that Old Person of Prague.

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