A broad hint of not meaning to dance [graphic]

"A provincial Assembly Room, with dancers in violent action in the background, in country dance or cotillion. In the foreground is an ugly foppish and conceited fellow standing with raised coat-tails and his back to the fire. He holds cocked hat and cane, and grimaces and bows towards a pretty young woman, one foot on a fragment of her dress. She walks away from him to the left., taking her chair with her. Another pretty girl sits against the wall (r.) holding a closed fan. The dancers are bucolic and ugly. The walls are decorated with candle-sconces; a clock on the chimney-piece points to 1.25."--British Museum online catalogue