Sailors drinking the Tunbridge waters

Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827 · March 1, 1815

The artist has sketched the old drinking-well at Tunbridge ; a body of sailors, true British tars, find themselves, by some queer chance, which is totally unexplained, at the well-known watering-place, and, what is more mysterious, these sons of Neptune are in close proximity to the Springs. A comely, well-favoured, and smartly attired young damsel, the ministering nymph of the fountain which, in this instance, it must be confessed, closely resembles a pump is presenting a tumbler of the fluid, drawn by her own fair hands, to a sturdy ancient coxswain.