A scene on the sea-shore. A hoven cow, that is, a cow dangerously distended by eating green food, is being operated upon by a man who stands on a raised platform and pierces her flank with a pole; in his right hand is a curved pipe for the injection of smoke. Three country-people and a child gape in astonishment holding up their hands; a fat alderman in a furred gown does the same; from his pocket hangs a paper inscribed, "Nine Days he liv'd in Clover". On the right. three doctors or apothecaries are attending an emaciated and seemingly-dead woman (right), who lies on straw, dressed only in a shift: one puffs smoke from a tobacco-pipe up her nostrils, another applies a pair of bellows, the third listens through an ear-trumpet. It appears that while the cow suffers from a surfeit, the woman dies of starvation. On the ground lies the hat of one of the doctors, in which is a letter, "To Mr Blake Plymoth". Three spectators (left) watch the efforts of the doctors: one, an oriental, wearing a turban and draperies, holds out his hands in astonishment; he appears to represent the wisdom of the East (or the noble savage) confronted with the effects of English civilization. His two companions, fashionably dressed Englishmen, look on unmoved. 
<p><br>Behind the sick woman (right) is the wall of a building, probably a theatrical booth; along it runs a narrow gallery where Punch is strutting; he points to a placard on which is a representation of the bottle-imp emerging from his bottle, the great hoax of the century, see BMSat 3022-7, 5245. Beneath the bottle is a placard, "Subscriptions taken in here for reducing the price of provisions". Other placards on the booth are inscribed, "Marybone Gardens Fete Champetre"; "Mr R------s Letters from ye Dead", this is behind the dead
<br>woman; "Hearing Trumpets on a new Construction", behind the doctor with the ear-trumpet; "Cox's perpetual motion, or the Elephant &amp; Nabob", an allusion to Cox's Museum, see BMSat 5243, his jewelled clockwork toys had been destined for an Indian prince; they are described in what Walpole calls "immortal lines" in Mason's 'Epistle to Shelburne', see 'Mason's Satirical Poems', ed. P. Toynbee, 1926, pp. 29, 112, 122, see BMSat 5243. At this placard an oafish countryman (right) is gaping while a boy picks his pocket. In the background is the sea; on the beach is a boat raised on stocks but already breaking up; this is inscribed "The New Adelphi".  The building of the Adelphi had been an unprofitable speculation, partly owing to the financial crisis of 1773, and the Adam brothers obtained a private Act in that year to enable them to dispose of the new buildings by a lottery, which took place in 1774. Across the water on the further side of a bay is a town inscribed "A View of Plymouth". A rope extends from a church steeple on the extreme left, behind the spectators, to a distant spire in Plymouth, down this a man is gliding.  1 September 1774
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<br>Etching
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