ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN
Analysing the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Roger Street's plate
Roger Street of Christchurch, Dorset (a cycle historian and the author of the 1998 book The Pedestrian Hobby-Horse) has written to say that he has a similar plate [see illustration] and that he believes it to depict the Duchess of Richmond, who was the Prince Regent’s new lady friend in 1819. She was described by Dorothy George (BM Catalogue of Political Satires, 1819) in connection with the print 'A gentle ride from Charlton House to Waterloo Place' (BM 13233) as “fat, décolletée, welcoming, and wears a coronet”. The Duchess lived at 7 Waterloo Place, near to Carlton House. He felt sure the reference on the plate to Richmond means we are looking at the Duchess of Richmond. Mrs Fitzherbert at one stage lived at Richmond (she was sometimes referred to as “The Lass of Richmond Hill”), but not at this date, when in any event she was well out of the picture. Roger Street was less sure when it came to the male rider on the tandem. The image of the gentleman rider certainly doesn't resemble those of the Prince Regent in a number of hobby-horse prints, where he is invariably shown as distinctly portly. He inclined to the view that instead it was the Fourth Duke of Richmond. Charles Lennox, Fourth Duke of Richmond-Lennox (1764-1819), at one time Governor of Canada, died from the effects of a bite from a rabid fox. Dorothy George, referring to a c. May 1819 print 'A visit to Richmond-to-alleviate the gout' (BM 13234), states that there are pictures on the wall behind the main figures (the Prince Regent and the Duchess of Richmond) one of which depicts "ALEoN OX" [Lennox], symbolising the Duke of Richmond. There is also a picture of the Duchess's home 'Waterloo Place'. The duchess looks remarkably similar to the person on the plate.