The monstrous assassin or the coward turn'd bill sticker (BM 1868,0808.5811)

A street scene: a stout man (right) affixes to a wall a large bill inscribed 'Monster Detected', resting one foot on a closed pair of stocks. A signature to the bill has been erased, the traces left suggest 'Captain . . . d Bill Sticker'. He is elderly and plainly dressed, with spectacles attached to his coat and a horn (? ear-trumpet) slung to his coat. He looks over his right shoulder towards a bill-sticker who stands behind him, holding up a lighted torch and saying, "take Care your feet don't get into them their holes Captain". He is a grotesque, ragged figure with a wooden leg, holding a roll of bills under his right arm, a tin receptacle for paste is strapped to his waist; in his right hand is a long stick. On the ground at his feet is a paper: 'A [word undecipherable] Song he that fights & Run away may live and fight. . . but he that fight will never ris. . . '. On the wall are other bills: [1] 'Monster Argenstien. . . '. [2] 'Escaped from a privat mad house an old lunatick. . . '. [3] A print of a sheep with a bell round its neck: 'The Surprising bell Wethe to be seen near the King bar Pimlico'. Behind the bill-sticker is a coachman seated on his box, looking over his shoulder at the two other men. His two horses are stationary; the front of the coach is visible. Beneath the design is etched: 'Sr S. Meadows [No Sir S. Meadows or Medows can be traced among baronets or in Shaw's 'Book of Knights'] & the Public are requested to take notice, this is not the Captain Straitshanks Who was broke for Cowardice, & who afterwards Offered to Enter into the French Service not to fight against his Native Country, & who has Kept his Wife and two Children upon 13 pounds a year in Wales till the youngest child is 44 years of age, & who with one Leg in the Grave is Endeavouring to do all the Mischief he can with the other - this is not that their Captain Straitshanks.' July 1790 [So dated by Miss Banks]

Etching