1803. ] 
verfes, a general defcription of the fub- 
jects. 
No. I, 
** Ts it in manfion rich and gay, 
_ On downy beds or couches warm, 
That Nature owns the wintry day, 
And fhrinks to hear the howling ftorm ? 
An of” 
No. IT. 
€¢ °Tis on the bleak and barren heath, 
Where Mifery feels the fhaft of death, 
As to the dark and freezing grave, 
Her children, (not a friend to fave), 
Unheeded go!” 
The firft of thefe prints reprefentd a 
woman of fafhicn, in a room fuperbly 
furnifhed, reclined upon a couch neara 
blazing fire, before which, on a taflelled 
cufhion, Jies a little French lap-dog. The 
feftooned curtain over the fofa, the Etru(- 
can ornaments on the chimney-piece, and 
the decorations of the toilet-table exhibit a 
good picture of the interior fplendour of a 
tafhionable dreffing-room. 
To this oftentatious difplay of the ener- 
vating comforts of modern opulence, the 
next picture exhibits a ftriking contralt. 
Tt prefents to us a poor barefooted and 
unaccommodated outcaft of fociety, feat- 
ed on the cold earth, in the midft of a bar- 
ren heath, far from the buly haunts of 
men, and expofed ‘to the pelting of the 
pitilefs ftorm 5°’ her bafket of ballads by 
her fide; one of her children crept fhiver. 
ing under her feanty cloak, and the other 
dead at her feet. 
No. Ill. 
&* Ts it in chambers: filken-dreft, 
At tables which profufions heap, 
Is it on pillows foft to reft, 
In dreams of beng and balmy fleep ? 
Ah! No!” 
f No. IV. 
*¢ Tis in the rufhy hut obfcure, 
Where poverty’s low fons endure: 
And fcarcely daring to repine, 
Ona ftraw pallet, mute, recline, 
O’erwhelm’d with woe,” 
In No. 3, the fair artift has delineated 
a Woman of fafhion at her Matin Meal, 
which fhe takes while fhe is in bed, at- 
tended by her waiting-maid, and furround- 
ed by her children, with a well-fpread 
breakfaft table and comfortable fire. As 
an or molu clock is difplayed on the chim- 
ney-piece, Mrs Cofway might have mark- 
ed the hour atwhich our people of the toz 
begin what they call their day. 
In oppofition to this, we have in No. 4, 
a poor half-naked family,employed in their 
daily labour, which, fo far from furnifhing 
them with any of the comforts, hardly fup- 
plies them with the meceffaries of life, 
MonTary Maa, No, 104, 
Retrofpe? of the. Fine Arts. 
49 
No, V. 
¢¢ Is it to flaunt in warm attire, 
To laugh, and feaft, and dance, and fing, 
To crowd around the blazing fire, 
And make the roof with revels fing? 
Ah! No!” 
No. VI. 
‘¢ >Tis on the prifon’s flinty floor, 
’Tis where the deafening whirlwinds roar, 
*Tis when the fea-boy on the mait 
Hears the wave bounding to the blaft, 
And looks below !”” 
As fong and dance is fo much the buf- 
nefs of the prefent race of fafhionable fe- 
males, there is fome propriety in reprefent- 
ing fuch a party, fo employed. 
This is contrafted in the companion 
print, by the horrors of a prifon, to the 
floor of which a poor old man is chained, 
accompanied by a young female, whom we 
may fuppofe his daughter, kneeling, lift- 
ing up her eyes to heaven, and praying 
for his deliverance. Through fhe iron- 
grating of the prifon, we have a view of 
a veficl in a thunder-ftorm. 
No. VII. 
‘¢ Is it beneath the taper’s ray 
The banquet’s luxury to fhare, 
And wafte the midnight hours away, 
With fa/bion’sidle votaries there 
Ah! No!” 
No. VIII. 
«© °Tis in the cheerlefs naked room, 
Where mifery’s vi€tims wait their doom, 
Where a fond mother famifh'd dies, 
While forth a frantic father flies . 
| Man's defperate foe!” 
“No. 7 may poffibly be the view of a 
fafhionable breakfaft, where profufien 
pours her copious ftores. This luxurious 
prodigality 1s, in the next print, contraft- 
ed by a beautiful female, funk to the floor, 
exhaufted by hunger, and perifhing—while 
a naked infant is fecking nourifhment 
from her breaft, and the frantic father 
rufhing out of the room, as Mrs Robinfon 
has well defcribed him—Man’s defperate 
Soe! 
No. IX. 
‘< Ts it to lavifh fortune’s ftore 
In vain, fantaftic empty joys ? 
To fcatter round the glittering ore, 
And worthip folly’s gilded toys? 
s Ab! Not? 
No. X. 
‘¢ Tis in the filent fpot obfcure, 
Where, fore’d all forrows to endure, 
Pale Genius turns, Oh! lefion fad ! 
To court the vain, and on the bad 
Falfe praife beftow !” 
In No. 9 we have a number of female 
fafhionables purchafing finery from a mil- 
liner ; and in No. 10, an allegorical figure 
of Genius contemplating the hafe of a lofty 
A column 
