The bosky magistrate [graphic]

"The interior of a well-furnished room with an open door (right) through which a dove-cote and trees are visible. By the fire (left) in an arm-chair is a gouty magistrate, tipsily somnolent, with twisted features. In his left hand is a glass spilling its contents, in his right a smoking tobacco-pipe; his right foot is supported on a cushioned stool. Beside him (right) is a table with books and writing-materials behind which sits his clerk, pen in mouth, spectacles on forehead, scrutinizing a group of three: a constable with a long staff between a fashionably dressed and drunken reveller and a young woman, whose dress hangs from just below her bare breasts. The constable, looking at the clerk, points to the woman. In the doorway a dog looks out and a sow looks in. On the wall over the clerk's head is a picture of an ass kicking over a statue of Justice (a 'Justass', cf. British Museum satire no. 8187); in the background St. Paul's and the Monument with other buildings indicate London. On the table by the justice a punch-bowl stands on 'Burn's Justice'. The chimney-piece is supported by two carved satyrs. Above it is a framed (?) almanack. A cat sleeps by the fire. A patterned carpet completes the design."--British Museum online catalogue