Title: THE AFFIDAVIT
Materials: paper
Techniques: lithograph
Production person: Print made by John Doyle (HB)
Printed by: Charles Motte
Published by: Thomas McLean
Production place: London, England
Date: ca June-August, 1829
Schools/Styles: British satire

[British Museum Satires 15824A]

Description
No. 22. Lord Tenterden sits, in profile to the right, in an arm-chair at a plain table, intently watching Lady Lyndhurst, who stands facing him, testa-men in raised right hand; her left hand rests on a paper on the table. She wears a large hat and a décolletée dress with gigot sleeves, and has an air of bold composure. Lord Lyndhurst (right), in Chancellor's wig and gown, stands beside her, his face partly hidden by her hat, and so close to her that he appears to be whispering in her ear. A young clerk, pen in hand, stands on the farther side of the table, gazing at her.



British Museum Curator's comments
(Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)
A paragraph in a Sunday paper, the 'Atlas', 14 June, charged Lady Lyndhurst, see No. 15705, with being the intermediary in trafficking in ecclesiastical preferments, without her husband's knowledge. A whispering campaign, part of the intrigues attributed to Cumberland, see No. 15809, &c, had (baselessly) accused the Chancellor of corruption in these appointments. She made an affidavit before the C.J. in chambers, denying the imputation, and an ex-officio information against the editor, Robert Bell, was filed. 'The Times', 3 July 1829. Cf. Nos. 15821, 15844.

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