Posting in Scotland

Hannah Humphrey|Charles Loraine Smith|James Gillray

May 25, 1805 · Hand-colored etching and aquatint · Drawings and Prints

Gillray here satirically suggests that Scotland remained wild and uncultivated in the early nineteenth century. A clumsy post-chaise loses it front wheels while traveling through a moorland landscape, tossing its occupant through the front window. This is hardly surprising since the chaise is pulled by the ill-matched team of horse and donkey whose traces are made of rough rope rather than leather. A barking dog has precipitated the accident, the companion to a shepherd lying in the foreground. All of the Scotsmen in the image are shown bare-footed and wearing apron-like kilts that bare their posteriors, a visual joke that makes literal the supposition that Scotsmen wear no undergarments under their kilts.

Artist

Hannah Humphrey|Charles Loraine Smith|James Gillray

Date

May 25, 1805

Medium

Hand-colored etching and aquatint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jill Spalding, 2022