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QUESTION & COMMANDS;

OR, the Road to HE_R_FORD;
a Sunday Evenings Amusement

Wright & Evans Description | British Museum Description

Engraving from the 1851 Bohn edition
Originally Published February 11th 1788
8 3/4"h x 13 3/4"w

Wright and Evans Description (More ...)

34. QUESTIONS AND COMMANDS; OR, THE MISTAKEN ROAD
TO HEREFORD: A SUNDAY EVENING'S AMUSEMENT.
February 11th, 1788.

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER. PRINCE WILLIAM OF GLOUCESTER.

This appears to allude to some churchman seeking preferment through petticoat influence. The see of Hereford became vacant in 1788, and Butler, who had been collated to the see of Oxford, by his political friend and patron, Lord North, much against the will of the Oxonians, was about this period, translated to Hereford by the Pitt Ministry, it is said to appease the dissatisfaction of the University. It appears that Butler was a native of Hamburgh, and had never taken a degree in either of the English Universities. Hence the cold reception he met with at Oxford.

British Museum Description by M. Dorothy George (More ...)

7266 QUESTIONS & COMMANDS; OR, THE MISTAKEN ROAD
TO HE—R—F—ORD; A SUNDAY EVENINGS AMUSEMENT.
Pub^d Feb 11^th 1788, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street.

In a large room lit by candles in sconces, a round game is in progress. The guests are ladies, undergraduates, and elderly parsons, some sit in a circle, while others look over their beads. An elderly parson grovels on his hands and knees, putting his head under the petticoats of a lady who sits (l.) with her hands raised in surprise, He acts at the direction of a boy (Prince William of Gloucester) wearing the gown of (?) a fellow commoner over a coat with a star, who stands (r.) in profile to the l., stretching his r. arm with an autocratic gesture; a spaniel licks his feet. A stout parson seated behind him on the extreme l. scowls and clenches his fist at the scene. The lady (the Duchess of Gloucester) sits between a fashionably dressed undergraduate wearing the gown of (?) a fellow commoner, and a stout parson who holds up his hands in astonishment. The undergraduates and some of the parsons appear amused, others frown disapprovingly. On the extreme l. is a small round table on which are two candles and playing-cards.

The scene is the Master's Lodge, Jesus College; the grovelling parson is the Master, Dr. Richard Beadon, seeking preferment on the death (9 Jan. 1788) of Harley, Bishop of Hereford, through the influence of the Duchess of Gloucester. Prince William of Gloucester (1776-1834) resided for sonic time at Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving the M.A. degree in 1790.

Wright and Evans, and Grego, identify the abject parson as John Butler, Bishop of Oxford, who was translated to Hereford in March 1788. But a press-cutting with an impression in the Victoria and Albert Museum expresses the indignation of Dr. Beadon's friends at the scurrility with which he has been treated: 'Friends of the discipline and welfare of the University of Cambridge cannot refrain from bearing testimony of praise and regard to one who has so much distinguished himself on various occasions.' Beadon, 'the worthy and learned Orator of the University', became Bishop of Gloucester in 1789. Abbey, The English Church and its Bishops, ii. 274.