Bristol Cheese, Made & Sold by Percival & Co_

This is one of four prints relating to Cambridge University created by an amateur and etched by Gillray in the last two years of his productive life. The others include:

• Cambridge Commencement Sermon
• A Petty Professor of Modern History, Brought to Light
• Matins at D-wn-ng College

Stylistic similarities among the prints, as well as the common Cambridge focus, make it likely that the same amateur was responsible for all four.

Bristol Cheese shows the large, round, over-stuffed figure of William Lort Mansel, D.D. Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and former tutor to the young Spencer Percival when he was a student at Trinity. The occasion for the print was likely the appointment of Mansel by Perceval as Bishop of Bristol in late 1808 while Perceval was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Second Portland Ministry (March 31 1807 - October 4 1809). In spite of the distance between Cambridge and Bristol and the difficulty of fulfilling the responsibilities of two geographically disparate appointments simultaneously, Mansel retained the lucrative positions until his death.

Although the drawing is not an accurate representation of the pulpit either at Bristol Cathedral or Trinity Chapel, the wood paneling is closer to that of Trinity.

As a bishop, Mansel became a member of the House of Lords, taking his oath and seat, according to the St. James Chronicle in March of 1809. Weak when compared to most Gillray prints, the satiric point is, I take it, that his seat (and consequently his vote) is a commodity like a round of cheese completely in the control of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (and future Prime Minister).

The print contains no publication date suggesting that it was either never published or that it was distributed privately. On the copy of the print at the Yale Center for British Art, however, someone has written in pencil October 18, 1809. This is the publication date for the other university print that this one most resembles—Cambridge Commencement Sermon, and lends, perhaps, further credence to their association.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Bristol Cheese, Made & Sold by Percival & Co_.
• "Spencer Perceval," Wikipedia
• "William Lort Mansel," Wikipedia