Skip to main content

A Hackney Meeting, 1 Feburary 1796

 Item — Box: LF104/4 Box 1
Reference code: LF104/4/3

Scope and Contents

By James Gillray. The two members for Middlesex simultaneously address a meeting of freeholders from a hustings against a building (The Mermaid, at Hackney) which forms a background. Both lean forward in profile to the right. Byng (left), thin and elegant, gesticulates with clenched fist, right arm above his head. He frowns, while Mainwaring (right) grimaces insinuatingly, his hands held out deprecatingly. From Byng's pocket issues a paper: 'Treatise on the use of Cocoa'. On the extreme left, behind Byng, stands Fox, holding Byng's hat. The other men on the platform, all wearing hats, are freely sketched. On the wooden barrier of the hustings are two bills, the lower part of which is concealed by the heads of the spectators, which reach across the lower edge of the design: 'Mermaid Hackney Meeting of the Freeholders for obtaining a Repeal of the odious, detestable, obnoxious, unconstitutional oppressive treasonable . . .' and 'Address to his Majesty by the Freeholders.' Hand-coloured etching. Description from the British Museum.

Dates

  • Creation: 1 Feburary 1796

Conditions Governing Access

Available by appointment in our Reading Room

Extent

1 Item(s)

Language of Materials

English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
+44 (0) 114 222 7299