[The Buff Club, at the Pig & Whistle, Avon Street, Bath] [graphic].

Scene in a crowded room lit by a few guttering candles, 'far exceeding in profligacy and dissipation' anything depicted by R obert Cruikshank in St. Giles. Men and women fight, drink, and smoke. An old soldier fiddles, a woman beats a drum for dancers who are almost hidden but apparently naked. Cruikshank stands on a table, pouring gin from a large tankard inscribed 'R.C' into raised glasses. One prostitute squirts liquid from her mouth at another, a third pulls on her stockings, incidents taken from Hogarth's 'Rake's Progress' (plate iii). 'Blackmantle' watches the fight, smoking a long pipe. On the walls are placards: 'No trust' and 'Pig and Whistle: Rules of the Club." British Museum catalogue