United Irishmen in training, James Gillray

Outside a country ale-house, ruffians are practicing their weapons at close range on the effigy of a British soldier that is spiked on a spear (left). It wears helmet, coat stuffed with straw, and top-boots. One man levels a spear, another fires a misshapen pistol, a third, who is bare-legged, with a headsman's axe in his belt, fires a blunderbuss whose large bullets fall to the ground. In the foreground (right), a woman turns the handle of a grindstone on which a man sharpens a sword. On the ground is a pile of weapons: swords, daggers, spears, muskets, and a pistol. Behind (right), men with pikes and spears gather round the inn-door. They drink. The landlord fills a glass from a small keg. All wear tricolour cockades. The (pictorial) sign over the door is 'Tree of Liberty.' In the background are a broken paling, trees, and a mountainous sky-line (BM).

Courtesy of Boston Public Library

james gillray 1756 1815 prints and drawings boston public library arts department scarecrows effigies target practice arms armament ireland history rebellion of 1798 etchings caricatures satires visual works prints english james gillray 1756 1815 high resolution 18th century political cartoons ultra high resolution

1700 - 1800

Boston Public Library

https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/

Public Domain