Eccentric Excursions: Ancient & Modern Armour contrasted

This print was included as plate 73 in a book called Eccentric Excursions or literary and pictorial sketches of Countenance Character & Country in England & S Wales, by George Moutard Woodward. It shows a man in armour his face obscured by a closed visor holding a shield and tilting spear. Facing him are an officer in the uniform of the Light Horse and another military figure wearing a large cocked hat, gorget, and tight pantaloons, shown inspecting the armour through a looking glass.

The scene references a description of Market Bosworth near Bosworth Field where weapons and accoutrements were dug up. The medieval battle dress is here contrasted with late eighteenth century military costume contrasting the colourful rather impractical outfits of the contemporary soldiers with the functional armour of the past.

Isaac Cruikshank (1756-1811) was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who moved to London in 1783. He was a contemporary of Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray and died of alcohol poisoning at the early age of fifty five.