Gillray (James)

, Hannah Humphrey, 1806.
a larger than usual social satire depicting fashionable ladies in voluminous dresses, with pretty bonnets and colourful parasols, engaged in the fashionable pursuit of donkey riding along a cliff-top path near the fashionable resort of Brighton. The populous scene is arranged into three groups, each titled above. On the left is the ‘Kicking-Sett’, with one donkey rolling on the ground, its rudely unseated rider looking horrified, a groom beating it with a cudgel, while behind them another donkey is whipped by a groom as it kicks its hind legs and excretes liberal quantities of dung. In the centre is the ‘Active-Sett’, with three donkeys trotting in a line, encouraged by the whips of two young grooms, while their pretty young riders feign obliviousness to the admiring looks of two smartly uniformed hussars. On the right is the ‘Passive-Sett’, a more tranquil group of riders, grooms and onlookers,.
355 by 555mm (14 by 21¾ inches).