NEWS RELEASES
Not a Spitting Image of Spitting Image!
24th April 2004
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the TV show ‘Spitting Image’, with its memorable puppetry, was the most watched programme of its time, satirising the government, with ministers and MPs savagely attacked with exaggerated physical and verbal puns. What does this have to do with Horsham Museum? The Museum has just acquired a 200 year old example of similar satirical assault – a savage attack, full of subtle, barbed comments, more so because it lay hidden beneath veneer of concern - on the government of the day.
In 1789 William Coombe, one of Britain’s great satirical writers and future author of the famous Dr Syntax Tours, wrote an attack on the Prince of Wales and his ministers. Included in it was an attack on the Duke of Norfolk, a man who at this very time was deeply involved in electoral corruption in Horsham. The Duke, who was working with the father of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was operating behind the scenes to remove the vote from those who rightly had it. The corruption was so great that in an age when ‘rotten boroughs’ were the norm, Parliament stepped in and overturned the 1790 election result squashing the Duke of Norfolk’s plans.
This booklet, published in the guise of ‘A Letter from a Country Gentleman’ to a Member of Parliament, was an examination of the Prince of Wales and his ministers at a time when King George III was suffering from his 'madness', leaving the Prince in charge. William Coombe comments on Norfolk’s change in religion from Catholic to Protestant, extremely important considerations in those days, and refers to his previous indulgencies, his earlier lifestyle, the buying of elections and so on, ending the note by saying that in effect that he would never become an important public character.
This small 75 page booklet, probably read by the ‘chattering classes’ of London and Brighton, and places in between, is a rare survival; the British Library does not have a copy. It was bought from one of Britain’s top book dealers, Jarndyce, who wondered why Horsham Museum should be interested in a political booklet. For a museum that holds one of the best collections of original documents showing how late 18th century politics worked, including top secret memoranda in which the Duke of Norfolk lays out his plans for taking control of Horsham, it is a significant addition. The booklet, ‘A Letter from a Country Gentleman’, will be going on display in a forthcoming exhibition ‘Gossipy Objects – Human Stories Behind Objects’.
For further information please contact Jeremy Knight (Curator):
Horsham Museum,
9 Causeway,
Horsham,
West Sussex
RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959
Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
Opening times: Mon to Sat (ex. bank hols) 10.00-5.00pm. Admission free.