The Miser's Daughter: 4/20, Sir Bulkeley Price bringing the Mortgage Money to Mr. Scarve

This print shows the scene in which Sir Bulkeley Price brings the mortgage money to Hilda and Cruikshank vividly enacts the street life in London as imagined at that time. Horses and people jostle for space in the narrow street. Windows of the timbered buildings are flung open as people look on to the event s unfolding below.

The Miser's Daughter is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth published in 1842. Set in the eighteenth century it is a historical romance which tells the story of Randulph Crew's attempts to marry the daughter of a miser called Scarve. It was illustrated by the prolific caricature artist George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Intertwined with the main plot are various strands which deal with aspects of London society at that time, for instance settlement of estates and wills.