The Piccadilly Farce

The old man being carried upstairs by a bevy of attractive maids is William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry (1724-1810) popularly known as 'Old Q'. He was also referred to as 'the Goat of Piccadilly' because of his rakish lifestyle, maintained well into old age, which is the point of Rowlandson's satire in this drawing.

Queensberry had a house in Piccadilly, where he spent most of his time, and from the balcony of which he could observe the comings and goings in the street below. A staircase led from the pavement straight up to his bedroom, so that any woman who caught his attention could enter the house without bothering the butler.

Perhaps his most famous remark concerns the river. 'What is there to make of so in the Thames? I am quite weary of it: there it goes flow, flow, flow, always the same'. And yet he was a keen devotee of London life. When not at home in Piccadilly, he lived at Richmond, then a newly fashionable suburb.