La Promenade en Famille. . .

La Promendade. . . shows the now very domestic Prince William, the Duke of Clarence pulling a toy carriage with his three illegitimate children by Dorothy Jordan, the famous comic actress, on their way from Richmond to their new home at Bushy. As they go, Mrs. Jordan, in riding ouitfit, is seen studying the part of Little Pickle from the farce, The Spoiled Child in which she was to appear at the Drury Lane Theater beginning April 28th.

The print may have been prompted by the the following notice in the True Briton on February 17:

Mrs Jordan it seems is no longer to tread the boards of the Richmond Theater but to range for the summer in Bushy Park.

Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, had fallen for Mrs. Jordan in 1790, having seen her as Rosalind in Shakepseare's As You Like it and in other spirited roles. By 1797 when this print appeared, they already had three of their eventual ten children and were as settled a couple as even the King and Queen could wish. In January 1797, the Rangership of Bushy Park had become vacant after the death of the Dowager Countess of Guilford (Lord North's widow) on January 17th. A week later, Bell's Weekly Messenger reported that the Rangership would be given to The Duke of Clarence. And on February 1st, the True Briton had announced that the Duke of Clarence had let his house on Richmond Hill to the Duke of Kerry and intended "shortly to occupy his new residence at Bushy Park." So the move from Richmond to more spacious and pleasant surroundings at Bushy Park had been a frequent news item.

The satire, gentle by Gillray's standards, is mostly at the expense of Prince William, the former carouser and lady's man in Wouski (1788) and Nauticus (1791) now become the sweating dray horse for his hyperactive children, with his pockets stuffed with toys and dolls. Mrs. Jordan, whose name (a synonym for chamber pot) had provided Gillray with some very crude humor in Lubber's-hole, - alias - the crack'd Jordan (1791) is now modestly dressed and scarcely caricatured, the only reference to her name appearing on the carriage as part of the family insignia.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on La Promenade en Famille. . .
• Draper Hill, The Satirical Etchings of James Gillray, 1976, #52
• "William IV of the United Kingdom," Wikipedia
• "Dorothea Jordan," Wikipedia
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #176

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