Country characters no. 3: Barber

Woodward, G. M. (George Moutard), approximately 1760-1809 · August 30, 1799

A stout gentleman, divested of his wig, has sat down for the tonsorial process, holding in his lap the London Gazette Newspaper; the village Figaro, a highly-dried and austere personage, of marked political proclivities, has fixed his melancholy eyes on the latest intelligence, while, not to waste time, he is pursuing the operation of shaving his unhappy victim ; simultaneously the edge of his razor-blade is taking an upward tendency, and his right hand is sawing away at the sitter's olfactory organ, while his left holds that important member immoveable.