2-970-017 - /Heritage Images

"The Parish Beadle" - painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A. - from the National Gallery, 1856. Engraving of a painting. 'The price paid to the painter was three hundred and fifty guineas...Wilkie, it is well known, was unwilling to use his pencil on a Sunday - obeying the last injunction of Dr. Johnson to Sir Joshua Reynolds. On a part of this picture, however, he did work on a Sunday, and that portion was the monkey. His excuse was characteristic, and even jocular. He borrowed the monkey (it is a very fine one) from the museum at Exeter 'Change. "You see," he observed, "this gentleman is a public character, and can only be spared from his public duties on a Sunday".' Note muzzled bear and woman with hurdy-gurdy. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.