John Bull and a French soldier facing each other, with rats, frogs, sheep and cattle behind: PD.30-2005

Current Location: In storage

John Bull and a French soldier facing each other, with rats, frogs, sheep and cattle behind

Bequeathed by Henry Scipio Reitlinger, 1950, transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991.

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1991) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Support composed of paper Height 391 mm Width 260 mm
Drawn Area Height 287 mm Width 218 mm

Watercolour : Pen and ink, watercolour with gum Arabic over graphite within border on paper

Text: Accept kind Sir this tribute from a Friend / To show what stuff each country shall defend / John Bull you see stands as an awkward lubber / Bloated with ale, & filled with fat and blubber, / yet when reduced by drill in honest John / good hearty stuff there is to work upon / He, shall stand forth a champion in the field / To charge the musket or the broad sword wield / as stout as valiant [?] down by art / A figure graceful with a manly heart / Now for the contrast & poor Monsieur see / The friend of Bonaparte & Liberty / Such liberty I mean as they can boast / Who only know the name or sound at most, / Half starved and lean with leg of spindle make / That weight of knapsack seems (alone), to shake / His visage lank, & eke[?] his paunch so lean / As if those frogs his only food had been / Then shall we fear such trash shou'd they invade / No honest John shall cry, I be'ant afraid / I'll shew [deleted] what with good roast Beef may be done / And trounced such vermin half starved carrion
Location: Below drawing
Method of creation: Black ink