'Jolting Preventives'

Four oval vignettes show Regency-era passengers bracing against the violent motion of a coach: a gentleman sprawled toward a reclining lady; a stiff military officer eyeing a woman who fans herself on a bed-like seat; a seated couple gripping straps; and a soldier lurching toward a portly fellow. The comedy is physical and class-aware — proximity forced by bad roads becomes social embarrassment or unwanted flirtation. Woodward supplied the invention; the young Cruikshank translated it into crisp intaglio line. The multi-panel format, each scene framed like a shield or window, places this sheet squarely in the sequential-image tradition running from Hogarth's narrative series through Rowlandson's comic prints toward the Victorian comic strip — the direct ancestor of the modern comic page.