Caricature map of England in danger of invasion, from Gillray's cruder output

GILLRAY, James.

A New Map of England & France. The French Invasion; or John Bull, bombarding the Bum-Boats.
London: Henry George Bohn, 1851. Coloured etching. 350 x 260mm.

Extra margin added on left for framing.

A satirical map of England, shown divided into counties, with Durham sporting the face of George III with Northumberland his nightcap, East Anglia his knee, Kent his foot and Sussex his buttock. The king is voiding his bowels on the French bumboats (derived from the Dutch for a canoe, 'boomschuit', and meaning a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored offshore) trying to cross the Channel.
The caricature was drawn and etched by James Gillray (under the pseudonym 'John Schoebert') and originally published by Hannah Humphrey in 1793, at a time when England was in terror of an invasion by the French revolutionaries. In among the bombardment are the words 'British Declaration', referring to George's promise to return Toulon (held by Royalists aided by British and Spanish forces) to the French on the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

This example, printed from the original plate, was published in Bohn's 'Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray', the most complete edition of Gillray's work, including the coarser 'Suppressed Plates'.

British Museum Satires 8346.
Stock ID : 22815