The Bond Street Battalion—or the Hospital Buff from Holland

This hand-colored etching depicts a corps of Dutch soldiers or refugees in London during the Napoleonic Wars. The figures wear exaggerated military dress—bright coats, enormous hats, tight breeches—and strike affected poses. The print descends from Hogarth's narrative sequences and Rowlandson's grotesque crowds, using distorted anatomy and garish color. Such satirical prints—distributed cheaply to London's urban audiences—formed a direct lineage to later comic strips: sequential imagery, caricature, social commentary, and mass circulation combined to shape how comics would eventually tell stories through exaggerated human form.