Crossing a Dirty Street

In this coloured etching James Gillray picks up one of his favourite themes, namely the difficulties of walking along London’s streets. We see the back view of the figures of a gentleman assisting a lady across a cobbled street which is overlaid with muddy pools of water.

The couple are fashionably dressed with the gentleman wearing a three-cornered hat and the lady a wide lace-trimmed skirt and extravagant hat. She has lifted up her skirts to reveal her legs almost to the knee. Their costume contrasts with the hazards of the street, not only slipping on wet and dirty cobbles but evading pickpockets and street hawkers. The publisher Hannah Humphrey was one of the few female publishers at this time.