Mother-Goose, of Oxford
This is one of several portrait caricatures etched by Gillray late in his career based on drawings by the amateur caricaturist, RF (Sir Robert Frankland). The others include: A View of Newmarket-Heath, taken from Davis's Straits (06/09/1807 and Billy the Gamekeeper. W.S. (04/23/1810). It shows Rebecca Howse (1737-1818), an old flower-seller, who was well known in Oxford as Mother Goose.
Trustees of the British Museum
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According to her obituary in the London St James Chronicle And Evening Post for Nov-14, 1818,
This appellation she obtained from her maiden name of Wildgoose. She was first married to a Mr. Hedges; and afterwards to Mr Wm. Howse, who survives her. When young she was distinguished for her personal attractions, and most of the gay Coliegians were acquainted with pretty Beck Wildgoose. Her regular station was, for many years past, at or near the Star inn, and the noblemen and gentlemen as they arrived in their carriages were all presented with a nosegay by Goose, with a hint of remembering 'the entrance of their dear father at College.' Even the Prince Regent was constantly waited on by Becky, whenever his Royal Highness passed through Oxford, and he never sent her off without a handsome present. Some years since, her sight totally failed, and she was regularly led to her station by her attentive husband. . . . It is conjectured that she had acquired property by her reminiscense of the old Members of the University, their sons, and relatives.
Like his father before him, Robert Frankland studied at Oxford, so he would have had ample opportunity to sketch a likeness of Mother Goose from the life as the print indicates. Appearing in 1807, 70 years after Rebecca was born, the sketch and print may have been designed to celebrate that milestone. If so, it caught on. The Frankland-Gillray collaboration was followed by a very similar print drawn by Robert Dighton in July, 1807.
Mother Goose
[July 1807]
© Trustees of the British Museum
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Mother-Goose, of Oxford.
- "Sir Robert Frankland-Russell, 7th Baronet," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #552.
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 352.
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