Politicians were also more respectfully treated as the 19th century advanced. Thackeray lamented what he called the generous satire of his boyhood, ‘wild, coarse, reckless, ribald’, but made no attempt to bring it back although he could draw as well as write. Gillray had died insane in 1815, his passing hardly noticed. Cruikshank, once bribed, apparently gave up all thought of rude humour, stopped drinking and preached temperance. Tegg, one of the publishers who encouraged Rowlandson and Cruikshank, also turned over a new leaf in 1820.

Respectability took over. Gatrell suggests that the new middle classes wanted to distinguish themselves from lower- and upper-class bad behaviour by adopting a moralistic culture, monogamous, sober, chivalrous and pious. Dirty drawings, that had appealed to all levels of society, presumably went private, just for the rich, losing their political bite and sticking to pornography — or so I suppose. Gatrell’s valuable and entertaining book is packed with information, answers many questions and is all the better for raising some more.


Claire Tomalin’s Mrs Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King is available from Penguin at £9.99.

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