A farmer's philosophy in death [graphic]

"The farmer, looking up, with folded hands, sits full face in an upright arm-chair. He wears a dressing-gown and night-cap, and appears fairly robust. The lawyer stands at his right hand, eagerly bending forward to write 'The last Will and Testament of, . .'; behind him (left) is the elder son, a gaping shock-headed youth in a smock. Behind the right arm of the chair is the doctor, sucking his cane disconsolately. On his left hand are the parson, with a grog-blossom nose, holding an open book, the weeping wife, plainly dressed in cap and apron, with a little girl holding a handkerchief to her face, and a smaller boy, yelling. The farmer says: "I bequeath my House and Lands to my eldest Son Dick- the rest of my property to my Wife and younger Children. I leave Six and eightpence to the Lawyer- all his gallipots and phials to the Doctor and half a years tithes to the Parson- Therefore March off Doctor! Write Lawyer! Pray parson cry Wife! and bellow Children! For it is all over with me"."--British Museum online catalogue