DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61480#0113
INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.
PLATE XI.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN.
" When fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress cometh upon
them, then shall they call upon God, but he will not answer." Proverbs, chapter i. verse 7, 8.
Thus, after a life of sloth, wretchedness, and vice, does our delinquent terminate his
career. Behold him, on the dreadful morn of execution, drawn in a cart (attended by
the sheriff's officers on horseback, with his coffin behind him) through the public streets
to Tyburn, there to receive the just reward of his crimes,—a shameful ignominious
death. The ghastly appearance of his face, and the horror painted on his countenance,
plainly show the dreadful situation of his mind ; which we must imagine to be agitated
with shame, remorse, confusion, and terror. The careless position of the Ordinary at
the coach window is intended to show how inattentive those appointed to that office are
of their duty, leaving it to others, which is excellently expressed by the itinerant preacher
in the cart, instructing from a book of Wesley's. Mr. Hogarth has in this print,
digressing from the history and moral of the piece, taken an opportunity of giving us a
humorous representation of an execution, or a Tyburn Fair: such days being made
holidays, produce scenes of the greatest riot, disorder, and uproar; being generally
attended by hardened wretches, who go there, not so much to reflect upon their own
vices, as to commit those crimes which must in time inevitably bring them to the same
shameful end. In confirmation of this, see how earnestly one boy watches the motions
of the man selling his cakes, while he is picking his pocket; and another waiting to
receive the booty ! We have here interspersed before us a deal of low humour, but
such as is common on occasions like this. In one place we observe an old bawd turning
up her eyes and drinking a glass of gin, the very picture of hypocrisy; and a man inde-
cently helping up a girl into the same cart; in another, a soldier sunk up to his knees
27.
PLATE XI.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN.
" When fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress cometh upon
them, then shall they call upon God, but he will not answer." Proverbs, chapter i. verse 7, 8.
Thus, after a life of sloth, wretchedness, and vice, does our delinquent terminate his
career. Behold him, on the dreadful morn of execution, drawn in a cart (attended by
the sheriff's officers on horseback, with his coffin behind him) through the public streets
to Tyburn, there to receive the just reward of his crimes,—a shameful ignominious
death. The ghastly appearance of his face, and the horror painted on his countenance,
plainly show the dreadful situation of his mind ; which we must imagine to be agitated
with shame, remorse, confusion, and terror. The careless position of the Ordinary at
the coach window is intended to show how inattentive those appointed to that office are
of their duty, leaving it to others, which is excellently expressed by the itinerant preacher
in the cart, instructing from a book of Wesley's. Mr. Hogarth has in this print,
digressing from the history and moral of the piece, taken an opportunity of giving us a
humorous representation of an execution, or a Tyburn Fair: such days being made
holidays, produce scenes of the greatest riot, disorder, and uproar; being generally
attended by hardened wretches, who go there, not so much to reflect upon their own
vices, as to commit those crimes which must in time inevitably bring them to the same
shameful end. In confirmation of this, see how earnestly one boy watches the motions
of the man selling his cakes, while he is picking his pocket; and another waiting to
receive the booty ! We have here interspersed before us a deal of low humour, but
such as is common on occasions like this. In one place we observe an old bawd turning
up her eyes and drinking a glass of gin, the very picture of hypocrisy; and a man inde-
cently helping up a girl into the same cart; in another, a soldier sunk up to his knees
27.