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BONEY: NAPOLEON THROUGH ENGLISH EYESCatalogue of an exhibition prepared by Devon Library services. First shown in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Caen in 1985 and subsequently at various locations in south west England. There are links to images of a number of the prints which were included in the exhibition.Contents INTRODUCTION It may appear somewhat insolent of the English to prepare an exhibition on Napoleon for display in France, especially when it contains a series of caricatures of such an important national figure. However it was prepared at the suggestion of a French delegation who visited Devon in 1982 during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Devon-Calvados twinning link. The caricatures, together with some other items from a collection in Exeter Central Library, were produced somewhat hesitantly but were viewed with great interest, and the visitors expressed the wish that this unusual view of Napoleon might be seen in France. From that casual remark the exhibition grew. The collection at Exeter was made by Heber Mardon (1840-1925), the director of a printing firm in Bristol who retired to Teignmouth. Although it suffered somewhat during the Second World War it still contains some 350 illustrations, a large number of medals, some documents and a death mask. About forty caricatures were taken from this collection to form the backbone of the present exhibition. To provide a more balanced picture of the English view of Napoleon other items have been selected from the Heber Mardon Collection and elsewhere in the collections of Devon Library Services to reflect national and, more particularly, local reactions to Napoleon. International politics and military campaigns have been avoided, except where it is necessary to explain allusions in the caricatures. Material was also obtained from the Devon Record Offices in Exeter and Plymouth, Plymouth City Museum, the British Library, Madame Tussaud's and the private collection of Dr. Michael Duffy. The assistance of the owners of these collections in making material available for inclusion is gratefully acknowledged here. In addition it is a pleasure to acknowledge the personal assistance of a multitude of individuals and institutions. Our friends in the public libraries in Caen always showed enthusiasm for this project, checked much of the French text and made the exhibition room available in the Central Library. The archivists in Devon Record Office have always been prepared to share their knowledge in the open and friendly manner that is the hallmark of those who wear their learning lightly. At the University of Exeter Professor Joyce Youings, Dr. Michael Duffy and Dr. Colin Jones spared time to read the manuscript or advise on historical background. To colleagues in libraries, museum curators and individuals, whether in Devon or outside, who advised on points of detail it is only possible to offer general thanks here. The painstaking writings of researchers in the past are a lifeline to the non-specialist who has to prepare an exhibition such as this against a deadline. It is only fair that this introduction should conclude with a list of those works without which this exhibition and its catalogue would never have been finished in time. Abell, Francis. Prisoners of war in Britain 1756 to 1815. - London : Humphrey Milford ; Oxford University Press , 1914. Broadley, A.M. Napoleon in caricature 1795-1821. - London : John Lane , 1911. George, Mary Dorothy. Catalogue of political and personal satires preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. - London : Printed by order of the Trustees. - Vol. 7: 1793-1800. - 1942. - Vol. 8: 1801-1810. - 1947. - Vol. 9: 1811-1819. - 1949. THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLISH CARICATURE The period of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars coincided with the finest years of the English satirical print, a golden age that can be attributed in large measure to the discovery of the value of the etching as a means of swiftly producing a topical cartoon. Etching had originated in the sixteenth century and had been used by leading artists such as Rembrandt in the following century. In England too, under the influence of Wenceslaus Hollar, a group of artists were producing etchings in the later seventeenth century. However etching did not enjoy the prestige of the finely finished line engraving. It is an easy medium to use, the work of cutting the image onto the copperplate being achieved not by the carefully controlled pressure of the engraver's hand on the burin but by the action of acid eating out the lines sketched through a resistant coating on the copperplate. For this reason it was particularly used by amateurs. The producers early satirical prints directed their attention to institutions and morals rather than individuals and current events and artists like Hogarth used line engraving as much as etching as a medium for their work in this field. The War of American Independence saw the growth of the topical print, and the adoption of etching by Gillray and Rowlandson shortly after 1780 meant that, by the time Napoleon arrived on the scene, all the elements were there for the effective use of caricature. Each day newspapers bore news of historic moment and the artists were now able to interpret the events of the day at the shortest notice. Several of the prints in this exhibition bear witness to the hurried, sketch-like nature of the caricaturist's work, for example the sailing ships in "Plump to the devil...". This was an immediacy that would have been impossible in the more formal medium of line engraving. French artists such as Honore Daumier were to discover a similar immediacy a generation later in the new medium of lithography, fortunately for the English too late to enter into an artistic war with John Bull. Indeed it can be maintained that the pictorial satires on Napoleon at that time formed the equivalent of several batallions on the Continent of Europe, worrying Napoleon and raising the spirits of his enemies. That at any rate was the considered opinion of the historian John Grand-Carteret in his book "Napoleon en images" (1895, p.27-8). Like the real army this regiment had its arsenals and its officers, and its strategy too was affected by current political developments. The illustrations in this section show one of these arsenals and three of the leading generals of this regiment of artists as well as introducing (in uncaricatured form) some of the leading actors on the English side. -1- VERY SLIPPY-WEATHER. / Etch'd by Js. Gillray. - London : Publish'd...by H.Humphrey, 27, St. James's Street , February 10th 1808. George 11100. This print, one of a series of seven by Gillray depicting different types of weather, acts as an advertisement for the printseller for whom he did most of his work, Hannah Humphrey. Careful inspection of the windows of her shop will reveal a number of the prints that appear later in this exhibition. In the second row can be seen "Tiddy-Doll" (item 63),the "King of Brobdingnag" (item 20) and "A kick at the Broad-Bottoms (item 53). -2- JAMES GILLRAY / engraved from a miniature painted by himself, by Jos. Brown. - London : Richard Bentley , 1848. - From: England under the House of Hanover / by Thomas Wright. Like his fellow caricaturists the Cruikshanks, James Gillray (1757-1815) was of Scottish descent. He studied at the Royal Academy and began his career by engraving trade cards. His caricatures show great political awareness and he may have been provided with themes by Canning and other politicians. Although he worked mainly for the print publisher Hannah Humphrey, eventually moving into her house at 27, St. James's Street, he gained extra money by supplying other publishers and he spent this in drink and dissipation. His powers had failed by 1811 and he died eighteen days before Waterloo, cared for by Hannah Humphrey and unaware of Napoleon's exile to Elba or of his subsequent return. -3- THOMAS ROWLANDSON (FROM A CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT). - From: The magazine of art, 1892, p.24. Born in London, Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) showed an early aptitude for drawing and went to study art in Paris at the age of sixteen with the assistance of a French aunt. He returned to London to study at the Royal Academy schools, but the French influence is evident from the elegance of many of his compositions. An inveterate gambler, he squandered the L7,000 inherited from his French aunt, but was able to support himself with his pen by working for the print publishers Tegg and Ackermann. He produced not only caricatures but also illustrations for books and periodicals, at times providing the figures to bring life to the architectural drawings of other artists. -4- GEO. CRUIKSHANK AUTHOR OF "ILLUSTRATIONS OF TIME" / A.Croquis del. - [London]: [Chatto & Windus] , [1873]. - From: A gallery of illustrious literary characters (1830-1838) / drawn by the late Daniel Maclise...republished from "Fraser's magazine"... George Cruikshank (1792-1878) was the son of Isaac, also a prolific producer of caricatures, and he received early training helping his mother to colour his father's plates. His first Napoleonic print appeared when he was only thirteen. His father died after a drinking contest when George was eighteen but the busy family workshop continued to thrive although Cruikshank lacked the academic training of Gillray and Rowlandson. His works were extensively pirated by Dublin publishers. In the 1820's he turned from political caricature to book illustration. Like his father and Gillray he was fond of drinking but in 1847 he became a teetotaller. In 1859 at the age of 68 he was made an officer in the 48th Middlesex Rifles. -5- ADVERTISEMENTS FOR CARICATURES. Exeter : Western Luminary , 28 December 1813, p. 1, col. b. Exeter : Woolmer's Exeter and Plymouth Gazette , 19 February 1814, p. 4, col. d. A coloured caricature could cost as much as a shilling but, although relatively expensive, the they were extremely popular. The printseller S.W.Fores advertised in the 1790's that he would lend out portfolios of caricatures for the evening to provide diversion for fashionable soirees. As these advertisements from Exeter newspapers show, they were also available in the provinces. The third issue of The meteor, the satirical periodical advertised in the Western luminary contained four coloured caricatures including "Bonaparte! Ambition and death!!" The copy of this print in the British Museum is unfolded, showing that it was also sold separately. The hieroglyphic portrait of Napoleon advertised in 1814 originated in Germany but was widely copied in a number of countries. (See George 12171, 12177). It is also mentioned in Thomas Hardy's historical novel The trumpet major. -6 to 9- NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND EMINENT PERSONAGES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; WITH MEMOIRS / By William Jerdan, Esq. F.S.A. - London : Fisher, Son & Jackson, Newgate Street , 1830. Four portraits are chosen from this collection which, although published a little after the events, are engraved after contemporary portraits and show the type of sources from which the caricaturists were working. -6- THE RIGHT HONBLE. WM. PITT. / J.Hoppner, Esq. R.A. [pinx] ; Thomson [scul]. - 1829. William Pitt (1759-1806) had become Prime Minister in 1783 at the early age of 24. In the 1780's with the support of the King he had introduced a number of economic and other reforms. He had hesitated to become involved in the Revolutionary wars but was worried by the spread of Republican sentiments in Britain. After the declaration of war in 1794 he abandoned reform. His unsuitedness to wartime leadership, his repressive measures and economic hardships brought on by the war lost him much popularity. He resigned in 1801 and was replaced by Addington, but was reappointed to head the Cabinet in 1804. He died with his health broken by the news of successive defeats on the Continent culminating in Austerlitz. -7- THE RIGHT HONBLE CHARLES JAMES FOX. / Hy Richter, Esq [pinx] ; S.Freeman [scul]. - 1830. Charles James Fox (1749-1806) spent most of his political career as a leader of the Whig opposition. He spoke on a number of reforming measures and fought for Catholic emancipation and the abolition of the slave trade. He had been in sympathy with the ideals of the Revolution and had opposed the treason and sedition bills introduced by Pitt in 1795 and 1796. Considered by many a friend of France, he made great efforts for peace. As Foreign Secretary after the death of Pitt he revealed to Talleyrand a plot to assassinate Napoleon, but his attempts to open peace negotiations came to nothing and he died nine months after Pitt. -8- HORATIO NELSON, VISCOUNT NELSON. / J.Hoppner Esq. R.A. [pinx] ; J. Cochran [scul]. - 1829. Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) had served in the West Indies in the 1770's and 1780's. He was sent to the Mediterranean in 1793, lost his right eye at Calvi and his right arm attacking a ship at Santa Cruz in 1797. At the Battle of the Nile in 1798 he cut off Napoleon and his army in Egypt. He commanded the attack on Copenhagen in 1801 and after war was declared in 1803 he was stationed off Toulon. It was from there that he sailed in 1805 to meet his death at the Battle of Trafalgar. -9- ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON K.G. &C. / Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. [pinx] ; T.Woolnoth [scul]. - 1829. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), known as the Iron Duke, had taken a military course at Angers. He commanded the 33rd Regiment of Foot in the Netherlands campaign in 1794 and 1795 and in India from 1797 to 1804. He was sent to the Spanish peninsula in 1808 and, after initial setbacks, advanced from Portugal across the difficult terrain of Spain, crossing the Pyrenees in 1813. He played a leading part in peace negotiations and was a leading statesman after the war. He had very aristocratic views, opposed Catholic emancipation and resigned rather than accept parliamentary reform. His views made him in turn the object of caricatures. THE REVOLUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH In the years from 1789 events in France were watched intently from across the Channel, where the changing political scene was regarded with feelings ranging from enthusiasm to horror. The young Devon born poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote on the destruction of the Bastille in 1789: "I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed With every patriot virtue in her train." His attitudes were later changed by the French invasion of Switzerland. Even after the declaration of war there were many with opinions favourable to the ideals of the Revolution. In Tiverton in 1793 proposals for a holiday to burn the works of Thomas Paine met with insufficient support and on 14 December 1797 the Town Clerk of Tiverton Beavis Wood reported a conspiracy in the house of an acquaintance "of the Jacobin brood". The government's repressive measures hardly served to win such dissidents over. -10- LIBERTY'S LAST SQUEAK; CONTAINING AN ELEGIAC BALLAD, AN ODE TO AN INFORMER, AN ODE TO JURYMEN, AND CRUMBS OF COMFORT FOR THE GRAND INFORMER. / By Peter Pindar Esq. - London : Printed for J.Walker, Paternoster-Row; J.Ladley, Mount-Street, Berkeley-Square and J.Bell, Oxford-Street , 1795. Peter Pindar was the pseudonym of John Wolcot (1738-1819), born in Dodbrook, Devon, and a physician in Exeter before devoting himself to satirical verse. He directed many verses against George III and "the bottomless Pitt". This work was inspired by the Treason and Sedition Bills which became law on 18 December 1795 and attempted to suppress the work of the London Corresponding Society and other radical bodies. The "Grand Informer" of the title was John Reeves, the founder of the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Levellers and Republicans. -11- EFFUSIONS OF A POT OF PORTER, - OR - MINISTERIAL CONJURATIONS FOR SUPPORTING THE WAR, / Js. Gillray invt. & fect. - London : Publish'd...by H.Humphrey. 27. St. James's Street , Novr. 29th. 1799. Heber Mardon B340; George 9430. The eighteenth century drew to a close with Britain having been at war almost continuously since 1793. The ministry of Pitt enjoyed considerable support, but there were many in the Whig Opposition who were becoming increasingly critical of the hardships that war brought. This caricature is a satire on Dr Samuel Parr (1747-1825), a Warwickshire schoolmaster and supporter of the Whigs. He was a man of eccentric habits, smoking and drinking porter being then largely confined to artisans. Here Pitt, like a horseman of the Apocalypse, rises from the froth on the Doctor's porter and is shown as being responsible not only for the war but also for the poor weather, the bad harvest and - worst of all - for the high price of Dr. Parr's favourite drink. -12- THE EXECUTION OF COL. DESPARD, AND SIX OTHER PRISONERS, WHO WERE EXECUTED ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1803, FOR HIGH TREASON. - Dock : Philp, Printer and Bookbinder , [1803]. Edward Marcus Despard (1751-1803) had had a distinguished career in the colonial service until he was suspended on frivolous charges by Lord Grenville. Soon after this he was convicted of conspiring to subvert the Government, destroy the King and attack the Bank of England and the Tower of London. The conspirators had allegedly sworn an oath to "recover those rights which a supreme being has given to all men". These sentiments, reminiscent of the French Revolution and the Corresponding Societies in London, were rarely expressed openly during the Napoleonic wars, but Despard repeated them on the scaffold where he declared that he died because he was " a friend to truth, to liberty and to justice" and "a friend to the poor and the oppressed". The case aroused considerable interest in Devon, being widely reported in the newspapers and giving rise to this broadside, printed in Plymouth Dock. EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF NAPOLEON. Napoleon was unknown to most Devonians before the spring of 1796. He is first mentioned in The Exeter Flying Post of 28 April as "the French Commander-in-Chief Buonaparti". In the following week he was introduced to the readership in more detail: "General Buonaparte, who commands at present the Republican army in Italy, is about thirty years of age. Under the ancient system he was an officer of artillery, and enjoyed the reputation of being a man of talents. He is a native of Corsica.". In the next issue a letter from him to the Executive Directory was printed in full from L'Eclair, and for the next twenty years few local newspapers appeared without mentioning his name. -13- BUONAPARTE / F.Cossia pinxit ; W.M.Craig delint. ; J.Landseer fecit. - London : Published...by J.Landseer & W.[name obliterated] , Sep 5 1798. Heber Mardon B274. Not all the portraits of Napoleon published in these early years were hostile. This portrait by Cossia had already provided the basis for an engraving by L.Schiavonetti which was published in London in May 1797. It gives a very romantic impression of the young officer and, contrasted with the thunderbolt toppling the Papal tiara, the symbols of literature, art, music and wisdom can be seen. Unlike Smirke, one of whose illustrations can also be seen in this section, both artist and engraver went on to become establishment figures, William Marshall Craig becoming painter in watercolours to the Queen in 1812, and John Landseer becoming court engraver to William IV. Such engravings as these provided useful source material for the later caricaturists. -14- [UNTITLED ALLEGORICAL PRINT] / R.Smirk R.A. pinxt. ; J.Holloway sculpt. - [London] : pub by R.Bowyer Historic Gallery Pall Mall , June 1796. Heber Mardon B346. Robert Smirke (1752-1845) was an artist who openly expressed revolutionary ideas during this period and this was probably the reason for George III's refusal to confirm his election as keeper of the Royal Academy in 1804. While this could well be a purely allegorical print, the figure bears a striking resemblance to the lean, clear cut features in the early portraits of the young general which were reaching England in 1796. In April of this year Napoleon had forced the King of Sardinia to sign the armistice of Cherasco and was negotiating without referring back to Paris. Victory is depicted restraining the figure from reaching for the crown. It is tempting to see this as a reflection of Bonaparte's somewhat high-handed actions in Italy at the time. -15- THE SITTING OF THE COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED AT ST. CLOUD TO WHOM BONAPARTE HAVING PRESENTED HIMSELF, HE DISSOLVED, NOVR. 10TH. 1799. / F.Vieira Portuensis inv. ; Engraved by F.Bartolozzi, RA. - London : Published...by Messrs. Bartolozzi & Vendramini, Sepr. 1st 1800. Heber Mardon B272. Napoleon, alarmed by news of events in France, had left his army in Egypt and returned to France in October 1799. He was extremely popular and was widely regarded as the only man who could save France. Sieyes, one of the Directors plotted a coup d'état with him. On 18 Brumaire the Council of the Ancients was persuaded to grant Napoleon full military powers and transfer the legislative body to St. Cloud. The next day he nearly met disaster when he tried to dissolve the other assembly, the Five Hundred. Although his brother Lucien was in the chair he was shouted down, left the room in confusion, returned and, as this engraving by Bartolozzi shows so dramatically, was attacked by the representatives depicted here wearing their preposterous togas. This could have been the end of Napoleon, but the troops were won over by Lucien and it was thanks to them that the assembly was dissolved, paving the way for the consulate with Napoleon as first consul. THE PERIOD OF PEACE. The signing of peace once more opened France to English visitors and lead to a more sympathetic view of Napoleon and the French. It was in 1802 that Robert Southey, in the guise of Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella wrote his Letters from England. On 23 April he reports seeing busts of Napoleon, Shakespeare and Wesley on the chimney-piece of an inn between Okehampton and Exeter. When asked by the visitor which of the three was the most popular the landlord replied "Perhaps the Corsican just at present; but his is a transient popularity...moreover he is rather notorious than popular." He added that nobody would set up Bonaparte's head as an alehouse sign. The numbers of English visitors in Paris were swelled temporarily by released prisoners. A great-great-uncle of the Devon writer Cecil Torr had been a prisoner of war in France and on his release after the Treaty of Amiens he stayed in that country. Unfortunately he was still there when war broke out again and was once more interned. A consolation was provided by the fact that he subsequently met his wife while interned near Dijon. The declaration also cut short fraternisation with the crews of French ships anchored in Plymouth Sound. -16- A TRIP TO PARIS OR IOHN BULL AND HIS SPOUSE INVITED TO THE HONORS OF THE SITTING!! / W.S. scpt [by C.Williams]. - [London] : Pubd...by S.W.Fores 50 Piccadilly , May 14th 1802. Heber Mardon B200; George 9864; Broadley A851. The definitive treaty of peace arrived in London from Amiens on 29 March to much rejoicing. On 2 April the streets of Exeter were illuminated by large painted transparencies and there was a firework display in the Cathedral Close. Soon English visitors were flocking to France. Napoleon, not caricatured and wearing consular dress, is seen welcoming John Bull and his new wife Hibernia, married to him by the Act of Union of 1801. Napoleon's politeness is contrasted amusingly with the awkwardness of John Bull and the grossness of his newly acquired wife. -17- ENGLISH PATRIOTS BOWING AT THE SHRINE OF DESPOTISM. / [C.Williams]. - [London] : Pubd by S W Fores 50 Piccadilly , novr. 8th 1802. Heber Mardon B215; George 9890; Broadley A308. One of the most notable visitors to France after the Peace of Amiens was the Whig Opposition leader Fox who was received with Erskine and Combe on 3 September at the first levee after Napoleon had been created Consul for life, a fact that may explain his haughtiness in this caricature. In France Fox allegedly gave offence to his friends by talking of liberty being asleep in France but dead in England. -18- N.BONAPARTE. AFTER AN ORIGINAL PICTURE PAINTED FROM LIFE, BY A.APPIANI AT MILAN. /A.Appiani pinxt. ; F.Bartolozzi sculpt. - London : Published...by G.Bartolozzi, No. 82, Wells Street, Oxford Street , June 10 1802. The more favourable opinion towards Napoleon after the Peace of Amiens resulted in the publication of a number of serious portraits, including this handsome stipple engraving by the master of the art in England at this time Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815). This must have been one of his last works before he left England to become director of the Academy of Arts in Lisbon. -19- TAKING LEAVE. - London : Pubd...by W Holland No. 11 Cockspur Street. (removed from Oxford Street) , Novr 12 1802. Heber Mardon B210; George 9891; Broadley A832. By the end of the year opinion in England was more hostile to Napoleon. In September a senatus consultum had annexed Piedmont to France, in October Parma was annexed and Ney was campaigning in Switzerland. Fox left France in November, and in this caricature Napoleon wears military uniform and a crown decorated with weapons and a pirate's skull and crossbones. BROBDINGNAG REVISITED "Gulliver's travels" by the Irish satirical writer Jonathan Swift was first published in 1726 and had become universally known through many popular versions. It provided the inspiration for a number of caricatures and fitted in ideally with the image of "Little Boney" which Gillray strove successfully to create and which was to endure until the end of the wars. -20- THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG, AND GULLIVER. - VIDE SWIFT'S GULLIVER : VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG. /[Lt. Col. Braddyll del. ; Gillray fec.]. - [London] : Pubd...by H-Humphrey 27 St Jamess Street , June 26th 1803. George 10019; Broadley A522; loaned by Dr M.Duffy. -21- THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG AND GULLIVER VIDE SWIFTS GULLIVER; VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG. - Dublin : Pubd...by James Gilderoy Smock Alley James Street and S W Fores 50 Picadilly [London] , July 1st 1803. Heber Mardon B212; George 10019A. George III inspects the diminutive figure of Napoleon in a famous plate that was widely copied. Besides the Irish piracy exhibited here, which appeared within a week of the original, the plate was copied or adapted in Spain and Germany. England had declared war on France on 18 May, six weeks before this plate was published. George III when shown this print exclaimed "quite wrong quite wrong no bag with uniform!!!", referring to the bag wig which appears in the plate. -22- THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG AND GULLIVER. (PLATE 2D) / Designed by an amateur [Lt.-Col. Braddyll] ; etched by Js Gillray. - London : Publish'd...by H.Humphrey, st James's Street , Feby 10th 1804. Heber Mardon B205; George 10227; Broadley A523. Again Swift's Gulliver's travels provides the inspiration for a print, as previously based on a watercolour by Lt.-Col. Braddyll. Behind the King and Queen Lord Salisbury stands stiffly, while princesses, pageboys and beefeaters look on in amusement. -23- GULLIVER Stothard del.; Angus Sculp. - [London]: published as the Act directs by Harrison & Co., July 13, 1782. - Plate 1. - From: Travels into several remote nations of the world. By Lemuel Gulliver ... / by Dean Swift. - London: Printed for Harrison and Co. No. 18 Paternsoter-Row, 1782. - (Novelist's magazine; vol. 9) Exeter Central Library: 823.08 [Caption to write.] Exhibited here is an edition of Gulliver's travels of the kind that would have been familiar to most sections of the public that the caricaturists were catering for. An allusion to such a classic work as this is not lost even on the public of today. The same is not true of the many references to songs, plays, personalities or events whose interest proved more ephemeral. INVASION FEARS Already in 1794 circulars were sent to coastal counties outlining measures to be taken in case of a threatened invasion. Early in 1798 when Napoleon was given the command of the Army of England and began to survey the coasts, the threat seemed to increase, but the danger passed with his departure for Egypt and the next scare was in 1803 when the preparations could be seen by observers from the English coast. The 120,000 men and 300 barges that Napoleon had allocated to the invasion caused considerable alarm in England, and measures were taken to commandeer waggons to move livestock and sick persons inland. -24- HOP STEP AND JUMP / [Roberts fec]. - [London] : Pubd by Roberts 28 Middle row , [1803?] ; Pubd [i.e. reissued] by T Tegg 111 Cheapside , Jany 1 1807. Heber Mardon B213; George 10044; Broadley A444. Napoleon's fall is predicted, but there are ominous undertones in this apparently lighthearted print. Napoleon's rise from Corsica to France and, by way of ambition and power to yet wider influence, betrays the very real fear of a French invasion during August 1803, when the preparation on the French coast were described in the Exeter newspapers. -24A- IOHN BULL PLAYING ON THE BASE VILLAIN / [Roberts fec]. - [London] : Pubd by Roberts Middle row , [1803?] ; Pubd [i.e. reissued] by T Tegg 111 Cheapside , Jany 1 1807. Private Collection; George 10142. Tegg acquired the plates of a number of caricatures and added his own imprint to them, capitalising on the popularity of Napoleon as a theme. Thomas Tegg (1776-1845) started his bookselling career in the provinces, arriving in London in 1796 and setting up his shop at 111 Chapside in 1805. He remained there until 1824, at which date he moved to 73 Cheapside. Tegg also ran book auctions but specialised in cheap popular literature, publishing some 4,000 titles on his own account up to 1840, very few of them being failures. He was succeeded on his death by his son William (1816-1895). There is an account of both their careers in the Dictionary of National Biography. -25- JOHN BULL AND THE ALARMIST. / [Gillray fec.]. - [London] : Pubd...by H.Humphrey 27 St James Street , Septr 1st 1803. Heber Mardon B218; George 10088; Broadley A475. The mood of alarm is more explicitly reflected in this caricature which shows George III in the guise of John Bull receiving with annoyance the ragged figure of the dramatist Sheridan, recently declared insolvent, who asserts that a thousand boats, each with 150 soldiers, are about to set sail for England. Behind him are posters spreading alarm and despair while he carries a bill-sticker's pole and a further collection of posters under his arm. The suggestion seems to be that the patriotic broadsheets, for some of which Sheridan was responsible, served to spread fear rather than calm it. -26- BERRY HEAD FORTS, TORBAY. In 1794 the Government had purchased land at Berry Head, which marks the southern end of Torbay, and erected a number of huts for troops and a battery of guns. In 1803, following reports that the huts were unhealthy, work on two substantial stone forts was commenced to guard against the threat of invasion and also to protect the fleet, which would often shelter in Torbay rather than off Plymouth, an anchorage which was open to storms from the south-west before the breakwater was built. The installations, which were equipped with forty heavy guns, were frequently garrisoned by local militia units who often regarded the bleak headland as a punishment centre. The remains of these Napoleonic defences are now incorporated into a country park. -27- ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN. PART THE IID. CONTAINING THE WHOLE OF DEVONSHIRE.../ Engraved at the Drawing Room in the Tower, by Benjn. Baker & Assistants ; the Writing by Ebenr. Bourne. -[London] : Published...by Ebenr. Bourne , 11th Octr. 1809. The Ordnance Survey was established in 1784 and even before the Napoleonic wars a detailed survey of the Plymouth area at a scale of 1:10,560 was made for a scheme of defence for the naval base there. The Napoleonic wars increased the need for accurate mapping, and between 1801 and 1810 all of Devon was surveyed at a scale of 1:31,680 or 1:21,120. The engraved sheets, at a scale of 1:63,360, were published in 1809, but two years later their sale to the general public was withdrawn for reasons of security, a decision that was not reversed until 1816. An accurate map of the county is perhaps the most important legacy of Napoleon to the people of Devon. MILITIA AND PATRIOTS. Most people were ready to make contributions towards defence or to volunteer for the militia, but there were always complainants. On 21 March 1798 Beavis Wood, the Town Clerk of Tiverton wrote to his M.P.: "I observe the little Farmers grumble sadly about paying for the Husbandry Horses - but some of these farmers will sooner let the Devil lead the French here, if they can save 2d." Nor were the little men the only ones to object. Lord Rolle conducted a vigorous campaign against the militia encampment near Woodbury as he thought that some of his plantations would be damaged. -28- TWO WONDERS OF THE WORLD, OR A SPECIMEN OF A NEW TROOP OF LEICESTERSHIRE LIGHT HORSE. / [Williams fec.]. - [London] : Pubd...by S W Fores no 50 Piccadilly , May 1806. Heber Mardon B202; George 10570; Broadley A855. Daniel Lambert of Leicester (1770-1809) was exhibited at Piccadilly in April 1806. He then weighed 52 stone 11 pounds (355Kg), a recorded weight only ever exceeded by one other man in England. He became a celebrity and features in several caricatures of the time, including this print which shows Napoleon terrified at the prospect of the English "light" horse. -29- THE NOTED JOHN COOKE OF EXETER. CAPTAIN OF THE SHERIFF'S TROOP AT 74 ASSIZES FOR THE COUNTY OF DEVON. / Drawn from nature & on stone by Geo. Rowe ; Printed by P.Simonau. - Exeter : Published by Geo. Rowe No. 38 Paris Street , ca.1827. Captain Cooke, born in 1765, was a well-known Exeter character during the Napoleonic wars. He was a saddler by trade and from 1789 was captain of the sheriff's javelin men. A most loyal Englishman, he published handbills at his own expense to counter the ideas of the republican Exeter printer Thomas Brice. He would post up in his shop window "a large sheet of paper written as a daily monitor, gratis, a bulletin of news to cheer people in the worst of times...". This would attract large crowds and an example of his homespun style is reported by a contemporary: "The Russians have beat the French, and King Joey is taken prisoner in Spain. Observe Spain is not in Portugal." -30- EXETER MILITIA LIST. - 1803. Devon Record Office. Misc. papers, box 5. The "Amended act for the defence and security of the realm", passed on 27 July 1803, was a reaction by the Government to the threat of invasion by the French. In each parish constables or other officers had to furnish a list of the names of all men between the ages of 17 and 55 divided into four categories depending on age, marital status and number of children. The lists for Exeter survive in the Devon Record Office, and the column for remarks throws some interesting light on local feeling at the time, particularly in the parish of St. Mary Steps where the officers were more ready to write down the comments people made. Transcription of selected entries:
NAVAL POWER. Naval supremacy was almost the only card in British hands in the first years of the nineteenth century, but it was the trump that prevented the conquest of Britain by Napoleon's armies. In the words of the First Lord of the Admiralty Lord St. Vincent "I do not say that the French cannot come, only that they cannot come by sea!" Many of the sailors must have had reservations about their situation, for they were frequently brutally snatched away from their home, work or even the theatre by the pressgang. Lord Cochrane was particularly violent in his recruiting methods and at one point came to blows with the mayor of Plymouth. -31- DEATH OF THE CORSICAN FOX. - SCENE THE LAST, OF THE ROYAL-HUNT / Js Gillray inv & fect. - [London] : Pubd...by H.Humphrey. St. James's Street , July 20th 1803. Heber Mardon B221; George 10039; Broadley A261. A caricaure which shows England as confident of a rapid victory, thanks to her supremacy at sea. George III, dressed as a huntsman, holds Napoleon by the throat while the dogs, named as admirals Vincent, Sydney, Gardner, Cornwallis and Nelson, snap at his tail. In the distance Pitt leads up the rest of the hunt. -32- LITTLE BONEY IN THE WHALES BELLEY / [Roberts fec]. - [London] : Pubd by Roberts middle row , [1803?]. Heber Mardon B220; George 10141; Broadley A541. Probably dating from around 1803, this allusion to the Biblical story of Jonah reflects the confidence that the English felt in their supremacy at sea. The curiously anthropomorphic leviathan represents English sea power and is ridden by a young sailor. -33- THE PLUMB-PUDDING IN DANGER; - OR - STATE EPICURES TAKING UN PETIT SOUPER. / Js Gillray inv & fec. - London : Pubd...by H.Humphrey 27 St James's Street , Feby 26th 1805. Heber Mardon B147; George 10371; Broadley A704. One of Gillray's most famous prints, this shows Pitt, long and lanky as in all his caricatures, facing a diminutive Napoleon across a dinner table. Pitt, armed with a trident and a carving knife, helps himself to a large slice of the ocean, as befits his mastery of the seas, while Napoleon carves a slice containing all of Europe except Britain, Sweden and Russia. The second line of the title includes a quotation from Shakespeare's "The tempest", iv,1. This is a caricature made all the more effective by its avoidance of any obvious taking of sides. -34- THE CONTINENTAL DOCK-YARD / Woodward del ; [Williams fec]. - London : Pubd...by Thos Tegg no 111 Cheapside , Novr 27th 1807. Heber Mardon B214; George 10772; Broadley A203. In this print the well-stocked, well-maintained British dockyard filled with the spoils of war, is contrasted with the delapidated French storehouse, where workmen struggle to build ships faster than the British can confiscate them. Although the Danish ship can be seen in the French storehouse, and Copenhagen is not among the battles listed to the left of the picture, the probable reference is to the seizure of the Danish fleet two months previously. -35- MY LADS, THE REST OF THE GALLEONS WITH THE TREASURE FROM LA PLATA, ARE WAITING HALF LOADED AT CARTAGENA... / [Lord Thomas] Cochrane. - [London] : J.Barfield, printer, Wardour-Street , [1804]. National Maritime Museum. Plymouth of course saw the most of the naval activity in Devon during this period. Some thirty-five ships were built there during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Among these was the Pallas, launched at Plymouth on 17 November 1804. This recruiting poster with its sideswipes at Napoleon is typical of the swashbuckling style of Captain Lord Thomas Cochrane. Cobbs is a nickname for dollars and pewter was used to refer to ingots. However Cochrane's previous ship, a wretched hulk, had earned him a poor reputation and he had to resort to the pressgang to obtain a crew. He avoided arrest on a charge of assault by sailing out of Plymouth, returning triumphantly in April 1805 with a massive gold candlestick tied to each mast. -36- ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THE SALE OF PRIZE VESSELS. - Exeter : Trewman's Exeter Flying Post , 16 May 1805. The economy of Plymouth was boosted by the wars, most dramatically by the periodic arrivals of captured ships and the subsequent auction sales of their cargos. Sailors would light their pipes with banknotes and merchants would travel from Exeter, Bristol and London to bid for the plunder. Britton and Brayley vividly describe the war economy of the port in 1803: "War instantly changes the scene. A new spirit is suddenly diffused and the greatest ardor and industry prevail..." This benefit conferred by Napoleon did not survive his defeat. In 1823 it was reported of Plymouth "numbers of houses are at this time shut up." -37- REPORT FOR A BREAKWATER IN PLYMOUTH SOUND, SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF ADMIRALTY SEPTEMBER 7, 1812, TOGETHER WITH A MAP AND PLAN FOR THE SAME... / by Samuel Moyle, (Civil Engineer.). - London : Sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row, Curtis, Market-Place, and Jenkins, Lower Broad-Street, Plymouth , 1813. Westcountry Studies Library s627/PLY/MOY While the inner harbours were safe at Plymouth, the roadstead was exposed to south-west gales. Torbay was used to shelter the fleet but Lord Howe predicted that it would become "the grave of the British fleet". Plans were ordered from the engineer John Rennie in 1806 and the work was started with a government grant of £80,000 in 1812. It was not completed until 1844, after 3,500,000 tons of stone had been shifted into position. The plan exhibited here was not the one that was adopted, the existing breakwater not being attached to the shore at either end. Rennie's breakwater, a familiar landmark for the visitor to Plymouth is a product of the Napoleonic wars that has proved its worth in war and peace. -38- ADMIRALTY TELEGRAPHS - 1805. War brings with it the need for rapid communications, and in 1805 Devon witnessed the introduction of the third telegraph line in the country, using the Rev. Lord George Murray's shutter system. Nine of the thirty stations on this line were in Devon, each equipped with a frame of six shutters which could be individually opened and closed to transmit messages from the Admiralty in London to Mount Wise in Plymouth. A message could be sent and a reply received in twenty minutes. In June 1815 it was the telegraph that relayed the news of Napoleon's abdication to Plymouth. The sites of the stations are shown superimposed on a contemporary map of Devon. The system was expensive to operate and the line was closed after the end of the Napoleonic wars. -39- TELEGRAPH COTTAGE, DALWOOD. - [1984]. The Napoleonic telegraphs have left their mark on the map of Devon in a number of place names. Telegraph Cottage, one of these, occupies an elevated position and housed those who manned the massive frame bearing the shutters that once stood on the front lawn. A more familiar placename is Telegraph Hill, now a dual carriageway just west of Exeter, at the top of which another station was situated. PRISONERS OF WAR The early prisoners of war were largely sailors, and aroused much sympathy among Devonians. In December 1797 the Town Clerk of Tiverton wrote to the M.P. Dudley Ryder of the departure of the French prisoners of war: "The tears of the Inhabitants above and below, came to meet the persons of the Prisoners. - The Thing was uncommon and a Specimen of the Gentle Part of War." The Rev. William Walker was more revealing when he wrote in a letter of 13 January 1798 that many inhabitants of Tiverton were partial to them and their cause. -40- POWER OF ATTORNEY / Chavre Herman to his sister Marguerite Gautier. - Plymouth , 20 August 1804 [i.e. 1801]. Plymouth and West Devon Record Office 570/58 The archives of the Superintendent of prisons and prison ships at Plymouth, preserved in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, show that officials had to deal with a wide range of business including frequent investigations of corruption and complaints about the supply of substandard bread and meat. At times there is evidence of an unusual level of assistance being given. Here a prisoner is writing to relatives in France to ensure that he obtained his fair share in an English prize vessel. -41- DARTMOOR PRISON AND ENGLSH [sic] BARRACKS. - London : R.Ackermann, Septr. 1. 1810. - (No. 21, of Ackermann's repository of arts &c.) Somers Cocks 1458. Many prisoners were crowded into the hulks of six old sailing vessels moored in the Hamoaze at Plymouth. Poor conditions in these hulks lead in 1805 to discussions by the Transport Office about constructing a war prison for 5,000 men. A gloomy, isolated position high on Dartmoor was chosen, largely at the instigation of a local landowner Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. The first stone was laid in 1806 and the first prisoners arrived in 1809. The damp climate led to much disease and the choice of site was criticised by more humane members of the public. The engraving shows the five prison blocks, each built for 1,000 men, with the hospital below to the left. The complex to the right is the barracks. -42- DARTMOOR PRISON - 1984. This modern photograph shows how the original layout with the radiating blocks within the circular wall survives intact today. Although it was originally built to house 5,000 captives, the present-day prison population is between five and six hundred. -43- MODELS MADE BY FRENCH PRISONERS OF WAR. - [1810?] Plymouth City Museum. The prisons at Plymouth and Dartmoor included many skilled craftsmen among their inmates. Using food bones, human hair, wood and straw they whiled away the hours fashioning a wide variety of trinkets which could command prices of 500 francs or more at the weekday markets. Illustrations of a ship model and a guillotine are shown here and other products include moving figures, model field guns and straw boxes. -44- MEMORIAL TO THE FRENCH PRISONERS OF WAR WHO DIED IN DARTMOOR PRISON. - Princetown , 1866. The French prisoners of war soon developed their own social structure with les Lords at the top and les Romains at the bottom. The conditions in which the latter lived were particularly revolting. In 1812 they were joined by American prisoners, some of whom were detained until December 1815. The French prisoners wererepatriated in May 1814, but not before some 1,200 of them had died, mainly from disease. Between November 1809 and April 1810 about 400 prisoners died during an epidemic of measles. The prison was closed in 1816 and was neglected until 1850 when it was first used for convicts. Captain W.B.Stopford, governor from 1866 to 1868, noticed that bones had been rooted up by animals over the years. He had them interred in two separate cemeteries with obelisks to commemorate the dead of each country. -45- TOMBSTONE OF LIEUTENANT AMBROISE QUANTI. - Moretonhampstead , 1810. Not all prisoners were confined in the hulks or at Princetown. On signing a declaration of good behaviour officers could go on parole in one of eight towns in Devon. These were Ashburton, Crediton, Moretonhampstead, North Tawton, Okehampton, South Molton, Tavistock and Tiverton. One prisoner, Lieutenant Gicquel des Touches, described Tiverton as pleasant but monotonous, a feeling doubtless heightened by the meagre allowance of 50 francs a month, equivalent to half pay, with which he had to meet the high prices caused by the blockades. Tombstones of French prisoners are known at Ashburton, Okehampton and Moretonhampstead, where the example illustrated with its masonic symbols can still be seen. -46- [MILESTONE FOR PAROLE PRISONERS, ASHBURTON OR HONOUR OAK, TAVISTOCK] Prisoners of war on parole had precise bounds set to the area they were at liberty to move about in, and these were marked by parole stones. Normally these were set on the roads out of the town one mile from the edge of the built up area. Several of those for Ashburton survive, on Druid Hill and the Whitchurch, Woodland, Buckland and Broadhempston Roads. This last is said to have been moved round the sharp bend at that point by prisoners anxious to enjoy the view round the corner! The Honour Oak in Whitchurch Road, Tavistock is a more substantial reminder of the presence of prisoners of war in the town. -47- MEMOIRS OF A SMUGGLER, COMPILED FROM HIS DIARY AND JOURNAL: CONTAINING THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN RATTENBURY, OF BEER, DEVONSHIRE. - Sidmouth : Printed, published, and sold by J.Harvey... , 1837. Prisoners of war aroused considerable sympathy among Devonians and there was often a willingness to help them to escape, especially if there was a prospect of financial gain. Such a prospect had its appeal for Jack Rattenbury, born in Beer in 1778, who had made various privateering voyages between 1792 and 1805. He next turned his attention to smuggling and in about 1806 offered to take four French officers who had escaped from Tiverton to Cape La Hogue for £100. They were discovered and cross-examined, Rattenbury escaping punishment by claiming that he had believed them to be natives of Jersey. -48- OTTER VALLEY EMBANKMENT. A little-known monument to French prisoners of war in Devon can be seen during an attractive walk beside the River Otter. Part of this walk makes use of an embankment built by French prisoners of war under the direction of Lord Rolle in 1812. Prior to that date the fields to the west were prone to flooding, but not all were happy at the result of the embankment which was blamed by some for the silting up of the estuary. This had previously been navigable for vessels of up to sixty tons. -49- TAVISTOCK CANAL TUNNEL. War increased the price of copper, and it was resolved in 1803 to build a canal from the Tavy at Tavistock to the navigable river Tamar at the port of Morwellham to carry copper and other ores from the mines near Tavistock and also to supply water to power machinery. The difficulties of the terrain were met by an inclined plane leading down to Morwellham, a drop of about 80 metres, and a 2.5 kilometers long tunnel under Morwell Down. This tunnel, started in 1803, was not completed until 1816. It was only two meters wide and three high and the working conditions of the labourers, who were mainly French prisoners of war, were atrocious. THE WHIGS AND NAPOLEON The Whigs during their relatively brief period in power could hardly be expected to get a sympathetic press. Gillray had always been anti-Fox as had much of the London newspaper press. As a captive on the Bellerophon moored off the Devon coast in 1815, Napoleon looked back at the Whig leaders with their policy of appeasment and commented to Maitland "had Mr. Fox lived, it never would have come to this, but his death put an end to all hopes of peace." Trewman's Exeter flying post reported rumours of peace proposals and talks on the exchange of prisoners in March and April 1806, and on 18 December reprinted a French account of the negotiations, commenting on Fox's "manly candour, openness and strength of character" during their conduct. -50- BONEY & THE GREAT STATE SECRETARY / Argus [Williams] delt. -[London] : Publish'd...by Walker no. 7 Cornhill , Feby 1806. Heber Mardon B207; George 10535; Broadley A84. Pitt died in January 1806 and was succeeded by a coalition "Ministry of all the talents" lead by Lord Grenville with Fox, the Whig politician, as one of the Secretaries of State. Napoleon is seen here suing for peace, reminding Fox of his visit to Paris in 1802. Fox's reply is not conciliatory, though events were to show that peace overtures the following month were to come from England not France. -51- PACIFIC-OVERTURES, - OR - A FLIGHT FROM ST CLOUDS - "OVER THE WATER TO CHARLEY." - A NEW DRAMATIC PIECE NOW REHEARSING. / Js Gillray fect. - [London] : Pubd...by H.Humphrey St Jamess Street, April 5th 1806. Heber Mardon B206; George 10549; Broadley A677. Within a month of the new coalition taking office peace negotiations were commenced. They continued after the death of Charles James Fox in September 1806. Fox is the Charley of the title, which is itself an allusion to a song about the Young Pretender Charles Stuart who had invaded England in 1745. George III looks with amusement at the extortionate list of peace terms presented by Napoleon and held by Talleyrand. The conspiratiorial whisperings between Fox in the orchestra and the Irishman O'Connor, then a general in the French army and shown here hiding behind Talleyrand, suggests that the peace talks are linked with seditious activities on the part of Fox, and with Anglo-Irish intrigues - note the harp of St. Patrick in the orchestra. -52- THE MAGNANIMOUS MINISTER, CHASTISING PRUSSIAN-PERFIDY. / Js Gillray fect. - London : Pubd...by H.Humphrey 27 St James's Street , May 2d 1806. Heber Mardon B203; George 10560; Broadley A557. On 28 March 1806 Prussia excluded British ships from her ports. On 5 April an embargo was placed on Prussian ships by Britain, and on 21 April the King's message announced further measures of retaliation. In a speech of 23 April Fox expressed his loyalty very warmly and made a vehement attack on Prussia, as is shown in this caricature. Behind his back though he holds a paper on the state of the nation which he allows Napoleon to read, a reference to an earlier speech on 3 April whwere he had claimed that England was not prepared for war. Yet again Gillray casts doubt on Fox's integrity. -53- A KICK AT THE BROAD-BOTTOMS! - I.E. - EMANCIPATION OF "ALL THE TALENTS." & C. / Js Gillray invt & fec. - [London] : Pubd...by H.Humphrey St James s Street , March 23d 1807. Heber Mardon B219; George 10709. The broad coalition government of "All the talents", also known as the "Broad bottoms" from Grenville's ample posterior, was dismissed by George III on 19 March 1807 because of the King's opposition to the Army Bill, which would have opened the ranks to Catholics. Here the King is seen kicking his ministers out of power, a move that was generally popular and made room for a ministry less prone to reconciliation with Napoleon. -54- TO THE YEOMANRY AND INHABITANT FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY OF DEVON. / An Independent Freeholder [i.e. Samuel Colleton Graves]. - Exeter : Besley, printer , October 17th, 1812. It would be a brave, not to say foolhardy, person who dared to oppose the entrenched Toryism of Devon during aperiod of the war when patriotic feeling was high. Yet this is what the Whig supporter Samuel Colleton Graves, son of Admiral Richard Graves, did in the Devon election of 17 October 1812. His address, exhibited here, shows him standing for peace and reform against war, sinecures and taxes. He polled a mere eight votes against the 823 of John Pollexfen Bastard and the 840 of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland. The voters represented about one per cent of adult males in the county; a higher representation may have given a different result. The young Acland however proved himself a progressive Tory, speaking in favour of Catholic emancipation and against the blockade of Norway shortly after his election. TRADE AND INDUSTRY The drain on Britain as paymaster to the successive coalitions in Europe could only be tolerated if further wealth could be generated by manufactures and trade. Despite hardships Britain appeared to be maintaining her position but in 1806 and 1807 the Berlin and Milan decrees on trade posed additional problems for Britain. In December 1810 the artist Joseph Farington visited Exeter and met Mr. Turner, a local wine merchant. He notes in his diary that "Mr. Turner spoke of the manufacturing trade of Exeter as having suffered more from the exclusion of British manufactures from the Continent than any other place had done." -55- THE GIANT COMMERCE OVERWHELMING THE PIGMY BLOCKADE!! / Woodward del ; Cruikshanks sc. - [London] : Pub...by T.Tegg Cheapside , Janry 27 1807. Heber Mardon B225; George 10699; Broadley A396. On 21 November 1806 Napoleon, by the Berlin decree, declared Britain to be in a state of blockade, all commerce with Britain by any states under French control being forbidden. This was considered important enough to be translated in full in Trewman's Exeter flying post on 11 December 1806. There was confidence that British industry could withstand the restrictions, and the giant shown here, with a head made of English porcelain and dressed in a variety of English fabrics, hurls British products at the hapless Napoleon, while ships in full sail leave the British coast undeterred by the Berlin decree. The truth was not so simple, as the blockade caused much financial distress in Britain. -56- WHICH DROWNS FIRST, OR, BONEY'S IMPROVED BUCKET. / [Williams]. -London : Pubd...by Wm Holland 11 Cockspur Street , May 1st 1812. Heber Mardon B146; George 11876; Broadley A874. On 17 April 1812 there was a debate in Parliament on the licensing system which put commerce under the control of the Board of Trade, of which George Rose was vice-president. Rose had said in the debate that the two countries were in the situation of two men whose heads were in a bucket of water, and the struggle was, which of the two could remain longer in that situation without suffering. Sir Charles Mordaunt, M.P. for Warwickshire addresses the American behind Napoleon with an allusion to his own statement that America could not do without Birmingham - she could not even shave herself or catch her own mice. The caricature provides an illustration of the economic problems caused by the Berlin and Milan decrees on trade, and Britain's responses to them. -57- VIEW IN THE CATHEDRAL YARD. / Drawn by A.Glennie ; Engraved by W.Deeble. - London : R.Jennings & W.Chaplin 62, Cheapside, [1830]. Somers Cocks 1031. The banks were a visible symbol of Exeter's economic condition. Some of them, such as the Exeter Bank, shown on the left of this steel engraving, boasted imposing premises facing onto the Cathedral Close. However the "Giant Commerce" of the caricature suffered in Exeter as elsewhere. The Western Bank failed in July 1810, and the private banker James Luke of Exeter committed suicide on 13 July. Even the mighty Barings, financiers and merchants in Exeter and London who had grown fat on war loans, were forced to close the Devonshire Bank at the end of 1810. John Baring's son Francis committed suicide on 14 November, his depression at the recent death of his uncle Sir Francis Baring probably heightened by the economic problems Napoleon's blockade had recently caused his family. -58- THE LACE MANUFACTORY, TIVERTON. / Sketched by L.E.Reed ; R.Martin & Co. lith. 26, Long Acre. - [Tiverton] : Published for the History of Tiverton, by George Boyce & James Salter , 1836. Somers Cocks 2982. The textile industry in the South West, already lagging behind the mechanised factories of the North, was dealt a severe blow by the Napoleonic wars which closed its continental markets. In 1807 Charles Vancouver wrote of Chulmleigh in north Devon: "About 13 years since 200 woolcombers met with constant employment in this town, but the utmost that were numbered in August last, did not amount to more than eight." In 1793 this handsome building was erected as a cotton mill in Tiverton. The optimism of the proprietors proved unfounded, although their exertions enabled it to struggle on through the long years of war until 1815 when the managing partner shot himself and the business was wound up. The factory was sold to John Heathcote who revived the fortunes of the town by introducing the first machine lace manufactory in Devon. -59- VIEW OF THE BEACH AND PEAK HILL, SIDMOUTH. / J.Nixon delt. -Sidmouth : Published...by J.Wallis, Marine Library , May 2, 1810. Somers Cocks 2472. If the wool industry suffered, the Devon tourist industry benefitted greatly from the activities of Napoleon. The practice of visiting coastal resorts for sea bathing had begun before the Revolutionary wars, but there was certainly an increase in this type of travel once the Continent was closed to British visitors. The artist Joseph Farington conducted his own survey on a visit to Devon in 1809 by reading the monuments of visitors who had died at Sidmouth, Exeter and Dawlish: "We observed that none were of a date more than twenty years back, & which caused us to suppose that this coast had not long been visited for the purpose of obtaining health." Guidebooks were prepared for the increasing numbers of visitors and this plate, the frontispiece to The beauties of Sidmouth displayed, shows army officers among those strolling on the beach with the signal mast on the top of Peak Hill serving as another reminder of the war. -60- LUSCOMBE, SEAT OF CHAS. HOARE, ESQR. - [London] : R.Ackermann, Augt. 1 1828. - (No. 68 of R.Ackermann's Repository of Arts &c.) Somers Cocks 644. Not all suffered equally from the war. Hoare's Bank, established in London in 1673, found a greatly increased demand for loans during the war, which shortages of gold and silver made increasingly difficult to meet. Nevertheless Charles Hoare (1767-1851) who had been taken into partnership in 1789 was able to indulge in an extravagant manner the liking he had felt as a summer visitor for the seaside resort of Dawlish. In 1800 he commissioned Luscombe Castle in the fashionable gothick style from no less an architect than John Nash. -61- [J.W.PARR, CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER - SIDMOUTH PAPERS DRO 152M.] Many were ready to exploit the war to suit their own ends. The plan illustrated here to bombard the French ports with columns of fire looks extremely effective, but some doubt is cast on its value when it is realised that the proposer J.W.Parr was a confidence trickster at that time confined in Maidstone Prison. This an item from the extensive papers of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister after Pitt's resignation in 1801 until 1804. The family had estates at Upottery and their archives have been deposited in the Devon Record Office at Exeter. NAPOLEON'S ZENITH. The years after Napoleon's coronation saw him as the master of Europe, and the mythological and astronomical allusions employed by the satirists during this period are a grudging admission of this fact. This worrying period lead to an ever increasing demand for news in Devon and in March 1808 two newspapers began publication in Plymouth. From their location in an important naval centre they were often able to print the news before their Exeter and London rivals. -62- MANY THINGS HAPPEN BETWEEN THE CUP AND THE LIP! / [Isaac Cruikshank fec]. - London : Pubd by J Williamson 20 Strand , [1803/4?]. An English proverb provides the title for this undated print which depicts Napoleon's gradual progress towards the imperial crown. The mitre and crown share the top of the pillar, indicating a date after the signing of the Concordat with the Church in July 1801. The hostile attitude of John Bull with his pitchfork and the nearness of Napoleon's hand to the crown suggest a date late in 1803 or early in 1804 as Napoleon was created Emperor on 18 May 1804. -63- TIDDY-DOLL, THE GREAT FRENCH GINGERBREAD-BAKER, DRAWING OUT A NEW BATCH OF KINGS. / Js Gillray invd & fec. - London : Published...by H.Humphrey 27 St Jamess Street , Jan 23d 1806. Heber Mardon B204; George 10518; Broadley A843. After Austerlitz Napoleon treated the rulers of Europe like pieces on a chessboard and this brilliant satire, full of detail, contains a number of prophetic insights. The print, published in January 1806, shows in a basket the Corsican kinglings: Joseph, to become King of Naples in March 1806, Louis, to become King of Holland in June 1806, and Jerome, to become King of Westphalia in July 1807. No doubt Napoleon's sisters and their husbands are also in the basket. The three kings being taken out of the oven reflect the provisions of the Treaty of Pressburg (26 November 1805) where Austria renounced rights over Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Baden. Gillray was not so accurate with his model of the little dough viceroys. Although untitled they represent the Whig politicians Sheridan, Fox, Moira and Derby, and are a vicious sideswipe at their policy of appeasement. The caricature of Talleyrand in the background cruelly depicts his surgical shoe, wrongly placed on his left foot. The original Tiddy-Doll was the gingerbread-baker Ford, a well-known London character who died in 1752 and was depicted by Hogarth. -64- NAPOLEON'S APOTHEOSIS ANTICIPATED OR THE WISE MEN OF LEIPSIC SENDING BONEY TO HEAVEN BEFORE HIS TIME!!! / Woodward del ; [Williams fec]. - London : Pubd...by Thos Tegg no 111 Cheapside , Sept 15th [1807?]. Heber Mardon B226; George 10761; Broadley A630. After the meeting with Tsar Alexander on a raft on the River Niemen and the conclusion of a Franco-Russian alliance by the Treaty of Tilsit on 7 July 1807 Napoleon became the master of Europe. Honours were heaped on him, and this scornful reference to the decision of the University of Leipzig to name Orion's Belt after Napoleon probably dates from this time. A struggling Napoleon is lifted Prometheus-like to the heavens while the wise men of Leipzig look on. -65- A POLITICAL FAIR / Woodward delt ; [Williams fec]. - Lodon [sic]: Pubd...by Thomas Tegg 111 Cheapside , Octor 1st 1807. Heber Mardon B222; George 10763; Broadley A716. A crowded print with many political allusions shows the state of affairs in Autumn 1807. The image of a fairground is employed and the inscriptions on the booths at the top refer to English plays. For example on the Prussian booth The poor soldier refers to a comic opera by O'Keefe (1783) and also to the truncated state of Prussia after the Treaty of Tilsit where she lost half her territory. The Danish booth inscribed The English, a comic opera by Dibdin (1805) refers to the seizure of the Danish fleet by Britain in September 1807. Napoleon is again depicted as the gingerbread baker. Here Holland is seen trying to return faulty goods, that is to say Louis Bonaparte, proclaimed as the Dutch King on 5 June 1806. -66- JOHN BULL EMBRACING THE PIE-MAN, OR A FRIENDLY VISIT TO ZELAND. -London : Pubd...by Thos Tegg 111 Cheapside , October 15th 1807. Heber Mardon B337. After news of the Treaty of Tilsit reached England in July 1807 Canning, the Foreign Minister, convinced that Napoleon was about to seize the Danish fleet to assist in the invasion of England, demanded the transfer of their ships, offering in return an alliance and an annual payment of L100,000. Denmark refused, but after the bombardment of Copenhagen was forced to capitulate and surrender her fleet. The severity of the Copenhagen campaign received much criticism in England which is reflected in this caricature showing John Bull killing the Danish pieman with kindness, while cannon-balls labelled necessity, esteem and humanity fall on the burning ruins of Copenhagen. -67- JOHN BULL MAKING OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMET / Woodward delin; Rowlandson scul. - London : Printed for Thos Tegg 111 Cheapside, 10th Novr 1807. Heber Mardon B227; George 10769; Broadley A493. On 27 October 1807 Richard Hall of Clyst St. George near Exeter wrote to Trewman's Exeter flying post of an "ocular view or observation of an occidental comet" and speculated on its nearness to the sun. The comet provided the inspiration for this print which shows Napoleon approaching the Sun King George III. Notice the frog squatting on the French shore to the left of the picture. -68- THE CORSICAN ROPE DANCER, WITH THE HUMOURS OF JOHN BULL, (AS CLOWN) / Woodward delt. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg 111 Cheapside , June 6th 1808. Heber Mardon B229; Broadley A232. The fairground image of A political fair is repeated in this caricature of Napoleon as a tight-rope walker balancing eight bladders on his nose with the two weights of craft and force. Until recently Napoleon had kept his balance well. Prussia, Russia and Austria had declared war on Britain at the end of 1807, and Westphalia had been created by Napoleon with Jerome Bonaparte as king, while Louis Bonaparte was ruling in Holland. But John Bull, dressed here as a clown, remarks, "It is rather ominous". The first bladder to burst was Spain where the people of Madrid had risen in revolt on 2 May. -69- THE CORSICAN SPIDER IN HIS WEB! / Woodward del ; Rowlandson scul. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg n 111 Cheapside , July 12th 1808. Heber Mardon B228; George 10999; Broadley A234. Napoleon still has most of Europe in his web, although the Spanish flies that he is about to devour are already causing him severe indigestion. Outside the web, apart from the British fly, is the Papal fly, to be dragged in in 1809 when Napoleon in May annexed the Papal lands after the failure of Pius VII to cooperate in the blockades. Pius retaliated by excommunicating Napoleon on 11 June, but he was arrested on 6 July. The Turkish fly formed part of Napoleon's grand design on Asia, which included the partition of the Turkish empire with Russia, with whom Turkey was then at war. Alexander was to meet Napoleon again at Erfurt on 12 October 1808 when he was to shake his hand and quote Voltaire: "The friendship of a great man is a divine gift." However Alexander regarded Tilsit and Erfurt as providing a truce rather than an alliance, and relations grew progressively more strained during 1809. -70- THE CORSICAN NURSE SOOTHING THE INFANTS OF SPAIN / Woodward del; Rowlandson scul. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg n 111 Cheapside, July 12th 1808. Heber Mardon B224; George 10998; Broadley A229. Growing discontent in Spain had lead to the incompetent King Charles IV and his favourite minister Godoy being overthrown at Aranjuez on 17 March in favour of the Prince of Asturias, the King's son Ferdinand. At this Murat occupied Madrid and Charles and Ferdinand were summoned to Napoleon at Bayonne. Napoleon persuaded Ferdinand to retsore the crown to "the good old King" and then replaced Charles by transferring Joseph Bonaparte from the throne of Naples in June 1808. Having effectively put the two main contenders to the throne to sleep, Napoleon is here seen rocking the two younger children Don Carlos (born 1788) and his brother Don Francisco. NAPOLEON'S FAMILY Napoleon' practice of dividing Europe out among his numerous clan was commented on in the caricature of Tiddy-Doll (item 63). It is not surprising therefore that besides Napoleon himself other members of the family were singled out as targets for the caricaturist, as the following figures show. While Napoleon featured in about 1,000 English caricatures, his brother Joseph appeared in at least 64 and the infant King of Rome in at least 53. Napoleon's two consorts are the next most popular subjects, Marie-Louise with 47 and Josephie with 24. The only other members of the family with over ten caricatures to their credit are Louis (19) and Jerome (17). However, as some of the exhibits in this section show, relationships with members of the Emperor's family were not always so acrimonious. -71- THE PROGRESS OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE / Woodward delt; C W[illiams] scult. - London : Pubd...by Thos Tegg 111 Cheapside, April 20th 1808. Heber Mardon B201; George 10981; Broadley A735. Josephine is caricatured here in a series of portraits which dwell unkindly on her ampleness but do provide an outline sketch of her life. She was born in Martinique in 1763, the daughter of Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie, a planter. She married in 1779 Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais who was guillotined in 1794. Her attempts to save her husband put her in prison from April to July 1794. She became a leader of Parisian society under the Directory and was mistress to Barras, one of the Directors. Her marriage to Bonaparte took place in 1796 and her elevation to Empress in 1804. The year after this print was published Napoleon was to repudiate Josephine because she had not borne him a male heir. -72- BONEY THE SECOND OR THE LITTLE BABBOON CREATED TO DEVOUR FRENCH MONKIES. / [Rowlandson fec]. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg no 111 Cheapside , April 9th 1811. Heber Mardon B209; George 11719; Broadley A104. Napoleon announced the dissolution of his marriage with Josephine on 15 December 1809. Already on 6 February 1810 he announced his decision to marry the reluctant Marie-Louise of Austria. The marriage took place by proxy in Vienna on 11 March 1810 and the King of Rome was born on 20 March 1811. The bishop quotes the words of Henry VI to Gloucester before his murder in Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 3, while in the background Josephine quotes a speech of Ophelia. Although the child resembled Marie-Louise he is here given the features of his father. -73- THE REUNION. OH MY SON! SHOULD YOU SO SOON HAVE REJOINED ME? / Tassaert invt. ; A.Ducotes Lithogy. 70, St. Martins Lane. -[London] : Published by O.Hodgson , Oct. 8th 1832. Heber Mardon Woolmer's Exeter and Plymouth gazette contained the following brief report on 4 August 1832: "The long-expected death of young Napoleon, Duke of Reichstadt, took place on the 22d ult." The King of Rome, the embodiment of Napoleon's hopes for the future of his empire, died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 21 in the same room at Schonbrunn that his father had occupied when he drew up the peace treaty with Austria. He had been granted the title Duke of Reichstadt by his grandfather Francis I. His final illness evoked much sympathy and this lithograph, published two months after his death, contrasts with the caricature of the "little babboon" published shortly after his birth. -74- LUCIEN BONAPARTE : PRINCE OF CANINO / from a painting by an unknown artist ; engraved by T.Johnson. - [London] : [Macmillan] , [1901]. - From: Life of Napoleon Bonaparte / by William Milligan Sloane. In December 1810 the arrival in Plymouth of Napoleon's brother Lucien created a great stir. He had disagreed with Napoleon over his dictatorial policies and over Lucien's choice of a second wife. Trewman's Exeter flying post notes (27 December 1810): "Lucien is in sentiment a republican, strongly averse to his brother's measures; he fled to a secluded retreat near Rome..." He had intended to settle in the United States but was intercepted and brought to England. He was given an estate near Ludlow where he remained, widely admired and a source of embarrassment to the authorities, until 1814. Woolmer's Exeter and Plymouth gazette describes his progress through Exeter (27 December 1810): "...they drove through the Fore-street very briskly, to the great disappointment of the populace, who pursued them in vain. ...many spectators keenly reviewed these notable travellers and described the celebrated Corsican refugee minutely, and the part of the carriage where he sat; however we have since been informed that they were deceived, for he played off a little Bonapartian manoeuvre, and rode on the outside as an attendant..." -75- THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, TRANSLATED INTO WESTERN ENGLISH AS SPOKEN IN DEVONSHIRE / by Henry Baird. - London : Impensis Ludovici Luciani Bonaparte , 1863. Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813-1891), the son of Lucien Bonaparte, was born while his father was exiled in England. He spent much of his early life in Florence and the United States, where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and linguistics. He returned to France after the 1848 revolution and was elected Deputy for the Assembly. Under the Empire he became a Senator but linguistics were his first love and the publication of this Devon dialect text is due to his personal interest. He spent much time in England, was given a doctorate by the University of Oxford and was also granted a civil list pension for his 222 works on linguistics. -76- NAPOLEON BONAPARTE & HIS FAMILY / [Thomas Williamson?]. - [s.l.] : [s.n.] , [1830?]. This finely engraved stipple print shows fourteen members of the Bonaparte family, identified on the laurel leaves held by the imperial eagle. At the foot Napoleon is shown in exile to the left, while the scene to the right indicates that the engraver did not share the caricaturists' opinion as to Napoleon's final destination. NAPOLEON AND THE DEVIL While Joanna Southcott and other millenarists were sincere in their belief that the advent of Napoleon heralded Armageddon, the image of the Beast of the Book of Revelation was also employed by satirists, who made great play with numbers. By assigning numbers to letters of the alphabet, applying them to Napoleon's name and adding them up, the grand total of 666, the number of the beast, was arrived at. Some of the diabolical associations of Napoleon are shown here. -77- PLUMP TO THE DEVIL WE BOLDLY KICK'D BOTH NAP AND HIS PARTNER JOE. / [Rowlandson]. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg no 111 Cheapside, Novr 30 1813. Heber Mardon B211; George 12106; Broadley A705. The "important and agreeable intelligence that a Revolution had aken place in Holland" on 16 November was triumphantly announced in Flindell's western luminary on 23 November 1813. In this print a fat Dutchman kicks Napoleon into the air while a second Dutchman prods Joseph with a pitchfork. Holland had had played no role in Joseph's losing the crown of Spain after the battle of Vittoria on 24 June and the two events are in fact linked only by an allusion in the title of the print to a popular song by Dibdin which includes the line: "My Poll, and my partner Joe." -78- THE DEVIL & BUONAPARTE, OR THE EMPEROR'S LAST TUMBLE, AS SUNG BY MR. C.TAYLOR... / Written by T.Evans. - London : Printed for the Author, & to be had at all the Music Shops , [1813]. The news of the restoration of the House of Orange was widely celebrated. Besides the grand entertainment given at the City of London Tavern, at which this song was performed, there were many festivities in Devon. In Barnstaple there was a firework display, in Teignmouth a banquet was held, and in South Molton 700 pounds (350 Kg) of beef were distributed to the poor. -79- JOANNA SOUTHCOTT / Drawn and engraved from life by Wm. Sharp. -London : Published by Jane Townley , Jany. 1812. Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) was born in Gittisham, Devon. Her father was a farmer and after her mother's death she went into service, at first in Honiton and later in Exeter. In 1792 she began to write prophecies which, as time passed, appeared to some to be fulfilled. Her first publication appeared in Exeter in 1801, after which she began to gain converts and moved to London in 1802. -80- THE LONG-WISHED-FOR REVOLUTION ANNOUNCED TO BE AT HAND IN A BOOK LATELY PUBLISHED, BY L.MAYER / explained by Joanna Southcott; with a letter to her from the author of that book, and her answers. - London : Printed by S.Rousseau ; and sold by E.J.Field; C.Abbott; W.Tozer; also by W.Symonds: and the Miss Eveleighs, Exeter; Samuel Hirst, Leeds; J.Middleton, York; and James Light, Stourbridge , 1806. One of Joanna's early prophecies, made in May 1796, allegedly predicted the course of the Italian campaign. This was made at the time when the French were replacing their general in Italy with a young officer named Bonaparte. Napoleon soon became identified in her mind with the Beast of the Book of Revelations and the war against him was seen as a holy war. On page 17 of the present work she claims that, were Napoleon to invade, he would be defeated like Sennacherib. The second coming, she maintained, would take place on Napoleon's downfall. -81- SPIRITS AT WORK - JOANNA CONCIEVEING - IE BLOWING UP SHILOH. / [Williams]. - [London] : Pubd...by W N Jones, 5 Newgate St. , July 1st 1814. George 12329. Joanna's growing numbers of followers alarmed some, who wrongly suspected her of planning an insurrection. Her enemies even called her "Bonaparte's brother". Early in 1814, when Napoleon was being hard-pressed in France, she announced at the age of 65 that she was to become the mother of Shiloh, the Messiah. Her critics seized upon this with glee and several caricatures were produced. She was examined medically and seventeen out of twenty-one doctors declared her to be pregnant. A crib and expensive presents were prepared, but she grew ill and died on 26 December. An autopsy revealed no trace of pregnancy. NAPOLEON'S DOWNFALL After the tide had turned for Napoleon during the Russian campaign a malicious streak entered into English caricatures. The same categories of images are used, but with a new aspect. It is now Napoleon that is being pushed into the oven in "The allied bakers"; the Prometheus-like figure that was being lifted to heaven in "Napoleon's apotheosis anticipated" is now the Prometheus chained to the rock and the globe that Napoleon once carved up with Pitt now threatens to crush him as Atlas becomes weary of holding it for him. In March 1813 a new, more vociferous voice also joined the normally restrained Exeter press. Flindell's western luminary used large type and a polemic style to vilify Napoleon and exult in his difficulties. On 30 November 1813 for example it wrote: "The practical constitution of France, with its police, espionage, enslaved press, and senate of tools, is nothing else in the hands of Bonaparte than one vast machine for the conversion of all the materiel and personel within the scope of its operation into a means of offence and aggression... We therefore wish to see it broken down... He will not be saved..." -82- GRASP ALL LOOSE ALL - ATLAS ENRAGED - OR THE PUNISHMENT OF UNQALIFIED [sic] AMBITION / [Williams fec]. - [London] : Pubd...by Thos Tegg 111 Cheapside , Decr 1st 1813. Heber Mardon B223; George 12107; Broadley A412. Pressed on all sides Napoleon asks Atlas not to drop the globe, which he still considers to be completely his own. At this moment however the Allies were occupying the banks of the Rhine and on 23 November the news broke in London that English troops were on French territory after the crossing of the Nivelle. Napoleon's refusal to give up his conquests after the proposals of the Congress of Prague in July 1813 and the declaration of the allies at Frankfurt on 9 November is attacked in this print where the generals, grotesquely caricatured, hasten to leave their Emperor at the prospect of impending disaster. -83- BLEEDING & WARM WATER! OR, THE ALLIED DOCTORS BRINGING BONEY TO HIS SENSE'S / G.Cruikshank fect. - [London] : Pubd...by T Tegg Cheapside , Decr 12th 1813. Heber Mardon B230; George 12118; Broadley A50. The allied doctors, from left to right Tsar Alexander, a Dutchman, a Spaniard, a Cossack and Bernadotte, Crown Prince of Sweden, all apply appropriate treatment to their struggling victim. Holding a pill inscribed "invasion of France" John Bull offers to pay the doctors' fees - a reference to Britain's role as financier to the allies. The invasion refers to Wellington; the Allies did not cross the Rhine until 20 December. Note how the water is heated by the flames of Moscow and that snowballs are among the medicaments, both references to the disastrous Russian campaign. -84- THE ALLIED BAKERS OR, THE CORSICAN TOAD IN THE HOLE / G.H[umphrey] ivt ; Griukshank [sic] fect. - [London] : Pubd...by H.Humphrey St James's St , April 1st 1814. Heber Mardon B216; George 12206; Broadley A9. The tables have been turned on the Corsican gingerbread baker depicted in 1806. Bernadotte, Vorontsov and Blucher push Napoleon into the oven. Wearing a hat with a symbolic weather vane, the Austrian Emperor Francis I, supposedly anxious to protect his son-in-law Napoleon, does not hold the oven door quite wide open enough while, from the right, Wellington approaches with two pies, one containing Soult, defeated on 27 February and the other Bordeaux, entered on 12 March. Holding the bellows squats a Dutchman accompanied, as always, by his pipe. -85- LE SABOT CORSE EN PLEINE DEROUTE / [G.Humphrey inv ; G.Criukshank fec]. - [s.l.] : [s.n.] , [1814?]. Heber Mardon B217; George 12218A. A number of Cruikshank's caricatures were copied and provided with French titles. Here the Original, "The Corsican whipping top in full spin!", published by Mrs Humphrey on 11 April 1814, has been reversed in copying. Of the allies Blucher is the most active while Bernadotte stands to one side not using the whip, a comment on his relatively passive role in Napoleon's defeat. In the background Joseph is carried away by a devil, while Holland is represented not by the usual fat Dutchman but by the future William I gleefully holding one of Napoleon's severed legs. In the original the cask is labelled "United Netherlands". -86- THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, OR DOWNFALL OF TYRANNY. / Cruikshank, fecit. - [London] : This Print Presented gratis to every Purchaser of a Ticket or Share at Martins Lottery Office 8, Cornhill, [July, 1814?]. George 12299A. Lent by Dr. M.Duffy. Napoleon exiled to Elba is compared to Prometheus chained to hisrock with an eagle tearing at his heart. The image of Prometheus formed the inspiration for several caricatures of Napoleon. It is significant that Sweden has been obliterated from the flames of the fiery sword held by the blindfolded figure of Justice. This print may have been issued in connection with the celebrations held in the London parks in August for which admission tickets were sold by the lottery offices. -87- STATE OF POLITICS AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1815. / G.Cruikshank fect. - [London] : [Pubd by M.Jones no 5 Newgate St] , [December 1st 1815]. Heber Mardon B341; George 12622; Broadley A825. Napoleon's legacy to Europe is expressed in a disillusioned print from The scourge. This copy is incomplete but shows most of the host of political allusions, from the Oxford degree awarded to Blucher, to the restitution of works of art taken by Napoleon and shown in a case behind Blucher. Two-faced politicians who had supported Napoleon advance to greet the gouty King Louis XVII who is surrounded by priests. Supporting Louis are the Prince Regent and the rulers of Russia, Prussia and Austria. The last three carry papers outlining territorial claims. A disembodied voice from above the rock of St. Helena begs the rulers of Europe to learn from the events of the past twenty years. -88- COST OF A WATERLOO MEDAL / William Heath. - [London] : Pub...by T McLean 26 Haymarket - sole publisher of Mr H's etchings , Oct 1st 1829. Heber Mardon B148; George 15868. It is difficult to account for the date of publication of this print unless, like so many of McLean's publications, it is a reissue as the cramped imprint may suggest. The Waterloo medal had been issued as long ago as 1816, following an order dated 10 March. It was the first medal to be issued to all persons present at a battle and to the next-of-kin of those killed. It was also the first to bear the name of each recipient individually engraved. The design by Wyon is handsome, but the original steel clip-ring received much criticism and was often replaced at the recipient's expense with a more elaborate silver mounting. A napoleon was a gold coin worth twenty francs. -89- WELLINGTON MONUMENT. - 1817. There were many celebrations of the victory over Napoleon, but the largest monument in the Westcountry to his defeat must surely be the Wellington monument, a pillar 50 metres high triangular in shape like the bayonet used in the Peninsula War. It stands just over the border from Devon in a commanding position 300 metres high above the town of Wellington in Somerset of which Wellesley had been created Duke in 1814. THE CHANGING IMAGE OF NAPOLEON Once the threat of Napoleon had been removed a more moderate tone entered into the depiction of Napoleon, and during the autumn of 1815 the flood of caricatures dwindled to a trickle. His death in 1821 mellowed the English view still further and, as the century wore on, his place in history was accepted more graciously. Cecil Torr of Lustleigh, writing in Small talk in Wreyland in the 1920's reflects this change in attitude quite clearly. His grandfather had actually managed to board the Bellerophon in Torbay and the sight of Napoleon merely served to confirm his prejudices. He claimed, "Boney was a poor-looking creature after all." However his father, born in 1819, did not see Napoleon as a bogey-man, used by parents to frighten their children to sleep, but as "a colossus in the history of the world, and felt that he had been harshly treated at St. Helena. -90- BONAPARTE IN PARIS! OR, THE FLIGHT OF THE BOURBONS! A POEM, / by Peter Pindar, Esq. - London : Published by John Fairburn, 2, Broadway, Ludgate-Hill , [1815]. Napoleon's exile to Elba lead in some quarters to a less virulent expression of opinion about him. The satirist Peter Pindar had written little about Napoleon except for an ironical "Invitation to Bonaparte", but in his later life he had suffered from ill-health and only wrote with the occasional aid of an amanuensis. This did not stop others from making use of his name, and here it is being adopted, probably by C.F.Lawler, for a poem advocating a more liberal attitude which includes the stanza, addressed to the King: The army that you might employ A people's freedom to destroy, Could, - 'tis to them an equal thing,- Some other time depose a King. -91- VIOLETS OF MARCH 20, 1815, IN WHICH ARE REPRESENTED CORRECT PROFILE LIKENESSES OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, MARIA LOUISA, HIS CONSORT; AND THE KING OF ROME, HIS SON / Copied from the original French print... - [London] : Published by John Fairburn, 2, Broadway, Ludgate-Hill , [1815]. The violet was the badge of the Bonaparte family (as the lily was of the Bourbons), and it may have been this that was the origin of the alleged statement by Napoleon prior to his exile to Elba that he would return during the violet season. The violet became the emblem of Napoleon's partisans and became seen increasingly as dissatisfaction with the Bourbons grew. There had been a similar puzzle print featuring lilies in May 1814, by the end of March 1815 this had been replaced by the spray of violets hiding the faces of Marie Louise (top left), Napoleon (top right) and the King of Rome (below in the centre). The date of 20 March refers to Napoleon's arrival in the Tuileries. While this is a straightforward print copied from those circulating in Paris and produced by a publisher who had issued a number of radical items, the theme of the violets was also seized on by Cruikshank who used it as a vehicle for a vicious parody. -92- BONAPARTE ON BOARD THE BELEROPHON OFF PLYMOUTH. - London: Published by Thomas Kelly, Paternoster Row , Jan 20 1816. The only occasion that the people of Devon had to see Napoleon in person was during the few days that he was anchored off Torbay and Plymouth. The Bellerophon with Napoleon on board arrived in Torbay on 24 July and sailed for Plymouth on 26, arriving in the Sound on the following day. Interest was intense. Trewman's Exeter flying post reported on 3 August that "there were on Plymouth Sound from 500 to 1000 boats of all descriptions, filled with spectators." Several people were killed in the crush. Napoleon appeared on deck several times and was described as "very well made, rather inclined to be lusty, his belly rather protuberant, but appearing by no means large or heavy; his leg and thigh muscular and remarkably handsome..." The authorities were alarmed at the amount of interest shown, and on 4 August the Bellerophon sailed back to Torbay to transfer Napoleon to the Northumberland on 7 August for his voyage to St. Helena. -93- THE LATEST PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON. (ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON). PAINTED BY C.L.EASTLAKE, R.A. IN 1815 / Engd. by J.Roberts from the original picture by C.L.Eastlake R.A. - [London] : Published exclusively in the Art-Journal [vol. 10] , [1848]. Among the crowds who hoped to catch a glimpse of Napoleon on Plymouth Sound was Charles Locke Eastlake (1793-1865) later to become President of the Royal Academy. Born in Plymouth, the son of the military agent there, he had visited Paris in 1815 to study works of art in the Louvre. On Napoleon's leaving Elba he had quitted Paris on the same day as Louis XVIII and returned to Plymouth. He sketched Napoleon from a small boat and, according to Flindell's western luminary 8 August 1815 "he had no doubt that he saw him taking this sketch, for he took his glass from his eye and evidently gave him a complete view of himself." Eastlake benefitted from the great interest shown in all matters relating to Napoleon; the portraits were widely exhibited and earned Eastlake £1,000 which he used to finance artistic tours in Europe. -94- TO WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ. M.P. TO THE FRIENDS OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE...THIS PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON...IS DEDICATED. -London : Printed for William Hone, 55, Fleet Street , [1815]. Heber Mardon B178 Even before Napoleon had safely disappeared to St. Helena his name was being enlisted in support of a good cause. Here the radical bookseller William Hone attempts to persuade the Government to influence Louis XVIII not to revoke Napoleon's decree of 30 March 1815 abolishing the slave trade. In fact Napoleon's attitude to slavery had in the past been equivocal. The Revolution had abolished slavery by the law of 16 Pluviose year II (4 February 1794), but under the consulate the slave trade had been reintroduced into the colonies, accompanied by the disastrous San Domingo campaign conducted by Le Clerc, Pauline Bonaparte's husband. The slave trade had been abolished in England under Fox in 1807, but slavery remained legal in the British colonies until 1833. -95- COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER. - London : Printed and published by G.Houston, No. 192, Strand. - Vol. XXVIII. No.6. -August 12, 1815. William Cobbett (1762-1835) had sought refuge in France in 1792 to avoid prosecution over his campaign to improve soldiers' pay. After returning from America in 1800 he espoused the Tory cause, but was converted to radicalism in about 1804. In this issue of the famous periodical which he founded in 1803 and conducted until his death he writes sympathetically of those who flocked to see and in many cases to applaud Napoleon in Plymouth: "They were tradesmen, farmers, gentlemen; in short a fair specimen of the nation, whose sentiments they so honourably expressed, and whose character they did their best to indicate." -96- DEATH MASK OF NAPOLEON I. - [1821]. Heber Mardon collection. The real face of Napoleon - or perhaps not. There is much controversy over the authenticity of the surviving Napoleonic death masks. This mask was originally the property of the Scottish army doctor Archibald Arnott who replaced Napoleon's surgeon Francesco Antommarchi at the Emperor's bedside in April 1821 and was present at his death. He presented it to John Gawler Bridge from whose estate it was purchased by Maggs in 1911. From Maggs it was obtained by Heber Mardon who bequeathed it to Exeter City Library. It is thought by Baron Eugene de Veauce (L'affaire du masque de Napoléon, 1957) to be one of only five masks made on St. Helena, and to be the first copy made after the Antommarchi archetype, now in Les Invalides. GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF NAPOLEONIC DEATH MASKS. (After Baron de Veauce.)
-97- NAPOLEON'S TOMB. / Drawn on stone from an original and exact drawing made on the spot, April 21st 1828 by Captain Foley 67th Regt. now in the possession of Barry O'Meara Esq. - [London?]: [s.n.], [1830?]. Prints such as this, which catered for the morbid curiosity of the British public over the fate of the fallen Emperor, must have suggested in the outlines of the trees by the tomb, the idea of the ghostly silhouette of Napoleon seen in the lithographs exhibited here. The modest tomb on St. Helena was soon to be exchanged for a more fitting monument in Paris. -98- ST. HELENA. THE SHADE OF NAPOLEON VISITING HIS TOMB. - [London]: Pubd. by S.Knights, Sweetings Alley & King Street, Holborn, [1830?]. Heber Mardon B159 -99- [UNTITLED COPY OF THE ABOVE] / Printed by Dean & Munday. - London : Published...by H.H. 61 Threadneedle Street , 1831. These two lithographs contain the ghostly form of Napoleon, cleverly shaped by the outline of two trees, contemplating his simple tomb on St. Helena. The idea obviously proved popular - an example of one of these puzzle prints in a commonplace book compiled in Devon is also exhibited here - and the untitled copy was produced to satisfy public demand. The copyist, who lacked the skill of the original draughtsman, has made absolutely no allowance for the reversal of the image in the printing process, even the "N" on the tomb being a mirror image. -100- UN BIVOUAC [and] THE SPIRIT OF NAPOLEON VISITING HIS TOMB / [drawn] on stone by A.Picken jun. - London : Pub. by T.Fisher 1, Hanway St. Oxford Street. , [1835?]. Andrew Picken (1815-45) enjoyed some popularity as a lithographer until his poor health lead him to settle in Madeira from 1837. He produces a virtuoso performance in the lower print. Besides the silhouette of Napoleon there is a full-length figure of Ney. Less easy to discover are the dozen or so other portraits that the artist claims to have hidden in the lithograph. -101- THE SECOND FUNERAL OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE : INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXHUMATION OF HIS REMAINS AT ST. HELENA; AND THEIR CONVEYANCE IN THE BELLE POULE TO FRANCE / illustrated by the artists who accompanied the expedition. - London : Robert Tyas , 1841. The transfer of Napoleon's remains to Paris in December 1840 and the magnificent ceremonial that accompanied their reinterrment aroused great interest in England as this book, with wood and steel engravings by the leading London workshop of Vizetelly, bears clear witness. Trewman's Exeter flying post wrote of the funeral (17 December 1840): "The change of his earthly resting place from the little isle of St. Helena, a mere speck amidst the billows of the Atlantic, to the city whose chief architectural beauties sprang into existence at his command; the luxurious capital of the brief empire which he founded, seems truly in fitting unison with the chequered fortunes which attended the career of this extraordinary man. Peace to his manes." -102- [ADVERTISEMENT FOR MADAME TUSSAUD'S WAXWORKS]. - Exeter: Flindell's western luminary , 9 May 1815. In the middle of Napoleon's "hundred days" Madame Tussaud arrived in Exeter with her touring exhibition of eighty-three wax figures of public characters. In France she had taken death masks of guillotined revolutionary leaders, and when Napoleon was First Consul she had modelled him at the Tuileries when he apparently behaved rather abruptly towards her. She left France for England in 1802. Woolmer's Exeter and Plymouth gazette reported on 6 May 1815: "Among the numerous characters comprising Madame Tussaud's collection, now open in Musgrave's-Alley, High-Street, is a model of Buonaparte, which from portraits we have seen, conveys a most accurate idea of that extraordinary personage, who, although so insignificant in appearance, had almost attained the pinnacle of human ambition. We feel no hesitation in warmly recommending it to the notice of our readers." -103- I DREAMT THAT NAPOLEON BONAPARTE WAS WALTZING WITH MADAME TEE. -[London] : [Cruikshank] , 1845. Madame Tussaud built up an extremely wide-ranging exhibition of Napoleonic relics, including the Waterloo coach that had aroused much interest when it was shown in London, the cot of the King of Rome and the pillow on which Napoleon died. W.Wheeler's Catalogue of pictures and historical relics, compiled for Madame Tussaud and Sons in 1901 shows that a whole room was devoted to him. It is therefore entirely appropriate that the figure that Madame Tussaud is dancing with in Cruikshank's dream should be Napoleon. -104- THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN. THIS PRESENT MONDAY, MAY 16, 1831, WILL BE PRODUCED A NEW GRAND HISTORICAL AND MILITARY SPECTACLE, (IN SEVEN PARTS) TO BE CALLED NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, CAPTAIN OF ARTILLERY, GENERAL AND FIRST CONSUL, EMPEROR, AND EXILE. - [London] : Theatre Royal , 1831. This production combined the popular taste for spectacle and the public's fascination with the figure of Napoleon into an ambitious undertaking. It was probably not quite such a new piece as this playbill claims. A spectacle entitled Napoleon Bonaparte, general, consul and emperor was first performed at the Royal Coburg Theatre on 23 July 1821, shortly after Napoleon's death. Coincidentally the play Napoleon Bonaparte, ou trente ans dans l'histoire de France by Dumas pere had recently been given its premiere at the Theatre de l'Odeon on 10 January 1831. -105- THE HISTORY OF THE FLEA; WITH NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. / by L.Bertolotto. - Second edition. - London : Crozier, printer, no. 37, Silver Street, Golden Square , [1835?]. British Library 729.a.19(2). The depiction of Napoleon in the years after his death took a wide variety of forms. At the opposite extreme to the grand spectacle presented at Covent Garden is the flea circus exhibited by Signor L.Bertolotto at the Cosmorama Rooms in Regent Street in the 1830's. For the then considerable admission charge of one shilling (£0.05) the curious could listen to music from a flea orchestra, see a coach and four drawn by fleas with a flea coachman on the box and, as a grand finale, marvel at three minute figures in full uniform representing Napoleon, his aid-de-camp and his faithful Mameluke Roustan, all mounted on fleas. -106- AN ALLEGORY / [Figure of Paul Pry, i.e. W.Heath] Esq del. -[London] : Pub by T.McLean 26 Haymarket , [May? 1828]. Heber Mardon D338; George 15533. The ghost of Napoleon continued to appear for many years after his death, warning, reminding, serving as an example to later generations. This caricature was probably published shortly after Russia declared war on Turkey on 26 April 1828. To the left of Tsar Alexander, astride the double-headed Russian eagle which is dropping a cage over the hapless turkey, can be seen the ghostly silhouette of Napoleon emerging from the smoke. His warning to beware of the Kelmuc recalls his words on St. Helena: "If there were to be...an Emperor of Russia who was valiant, impetuous, capable...all Europe would be his." -107- THE DEGENERATES. SHADE OF "LE PETIT CAPORAL." "VIVE L'ARMEE! YES! BUT IT WAS NOT WITH GENERALS LIKE YOU THAT I WON MY CAMPAIGNS!" / JT ; Swain sc. - London : Punch, or the London charivari , 13 September 1899. At the height of the Dreyfus affair demonstrations and counter-demonstrations were threatening public order in France as right-wing Nationalist groups seemed to be heading towards a coup d'état. During the retrial of Dreyfus at Rennes in August there were riots in Paris, and a handfull of Nationalists kept the whole of the Paris police force at bay for a month in the siege of the Rue de Chabrol. The government seized on an epidemic among livestock as an excuse to cancel the autumn manoeuvres. Here Napoleon looks on sternly as the generals make their plans, his memory providing a telling contrast to the disordered state of France in 1899. Napoleon's figure appeared frequently in political cartoons in England during the century after his death, normally in a much more postive role than during his lifetime. -108- LOCAL WRITINGS ON NAPOLEON. TOO FEW FOR DRUMS / R.F.Delderfield THE TRUMPET MAJOR / Thomas Hardy THE DYNASTS / Thomas Hardy THE WESTCOTES / A.T.Quiller-Couch THE MAYOR OF TROY / Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch. THE AMERICAN PRISONER / Eden Phillpotts MR. ROWE / D.K.Broster THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE / by S.Baring-Gould. - London: Methuen , 1897. A ROMANCE IN LAVENDAR / Neil Bell It is scarcely surprising that the figure of Napoleon has attracted the attention of writers in the West of England as elsewhere. Besides Heber Mardon, whose collection forms the basis of this exhibition, the novelist R.F.Delderfield had a large collection of material on Napoleon and wrote historical studies as well as novels on the period. A special theme for novelists wasprovided by the prisoners of war while Quiller-Couch and Thomas Hardy have used the period as settings for historical novels. Perhaps the most remarkable work of literature is The dynasts,Thomas Hardy's epic verse and prose drama on the Napoleonic wars, a trilogy in nineteen acts with a total of 130 scenes and a cast of several hundred. Only a selection of the works of local writers inspired by Napoleon can be shown here. -109- ADVERTISEMENT FOR BOVRIL. - 1923. For advertisers Napoleon has long been a name to conjure with, and his cachet is eagerly sought. Although he may well have bestowed it on Courvoisier brandy, the implication is harder to accept that, had Bovril been available to Napoleon and the Grande Armee, the course of history might have been changed. -110- LA GARDE IMPERIALE : 1ER REGIMENT DES GRENADIERS A PIED. - [1983]. The final item in this exhibition shows that, after almost two centuries, the English can rival the French in their appreciation of Napoleon. The Regiment, who research the uniforms, drill and campaigns in the minutest detail, have been invited to France to demonstrate as there is no comparable troop in Napoleon's native land. A special honour was the presentation of standards to the Regiment at Les Invalides. The members of the troop have a regard for Napoleon which would have astonished John Bull at the start of the last century. In the age of the Entente Cordiale this item forms a fitting conclusion to the exhibition. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creator: | Devon Library and Information Services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title: | Boney : Napoleon through English eyes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imprint: | : Devon Library Services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Web page : HTML | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: | Devon's heritage ; D944 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ref. no.: | WEB BONEY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coverage: | Not local . France . Monarchs . Napoleon I . Illustrations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Updated: |
24/11/2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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