3-053-527 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Restoring The Sign" by T. Green, 1873. 'There is a sly touch of satirical humour in Mr. Townley Green's drawing of a street scene in some old English country town or village in the...last century. A reference to the history of political parties during the period when Jacobite intrigues were rife in combination with the unscrupulous rivalries of the Whig and Tory factions, under the reigns of Queen Anne and the first two Georges, might perhaps supply a choice of more than one concurrence of circumstances, giving a particular significance to the restoration of this ducal portrait on the signboard of [a] tavern. There were many ups and downs...in the public and personal fortunes of that age, for which we can hardly now find a parallel in the affairs of our own country at this day, but which are more than equalled...by the frequent...revolutions of power in France. It is evident that, in the case before us, whatever has been the course of events, there is considerable difference of sentiment among the bystanders; and the gentleman in the laced coat, with his cocked hat and cane, has an opinion which is likely to disagree with that of the Puritan wigmaker at the door of the next house, who piously meditates on the mutability of earthly things'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.