Mistaken Kindness. Punch (16 March 1867): 112. Enthusiastic Nimrod [i.e. hunter] (who has mounted a friend [i.e., had obtained a horse for a friend). “Shouldn’t like to go Home without showing you any Sport, old Fellow! Perhaps we may find a Fox, yet!” (Friend (from manufacturing districts) devoutly hopes not.) Click on image to enlarge it.
Interesting that this cartoon appeared in 1867, the year of the second Reform Bill in which the right to vote was not only extended to more people but the power continued to move away from rural districts and to the manufacturing ones. Although one can be fairly certain that most of Punch’s readers lived in urban constituencies, the cartoon’s targets and allegiances are difficult to determine. At first, it seems to poke fun at the man from the city, who doesn’t have the hardihood of the rural hunter. But then again the passionate hunter appears pretty silly both in his dogged pursuit of something to hunt and in his lack of awareness of his friend's obvious discomfort.
Image from Internet Archive. [This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose without prior permission as long as you credit this site, the Internet Archive, and the University of Toronto library. — George P. Landow]
Last modified 7 May 2018