Dent (William)

a satire on the very longwinded legal scrutiny of the 1784 General Election result in the constituency of Westminster, fought by Charles James Fox, seated on the right in this scene, against the famous admiral, Viscount Hood, who stood for Pitt’s tories, and won, and Sir Cecil Wray, originally a whig but who was opposed to the Fox-North coalition that the election stood to defeat, and who demanded a scrutiny by the High Bailiff of suspected corrupt voting when he came last. This process dragged on, seemingly interminably, hence the yawning or gaping expressions of all the figures seated around a large table, covered in legal and parliamentary documents, and referred to in the six lines of verse below, before it was eventually ordered to conclude in the Spring of 1785. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, a fervent supporter of Fox who was rumoured to offer kisses in return for votes, is depicted on the far right,

original hand-coloured etching, 245 x 330 mm. (9 5/8 x 13 in), unevenly trimmed to, or just within, the image and title with some additional loss to the upper and lower left corners, [BM Satires undescribed],