'Dodo' — The Hon. Sir Adolphus Frederick Octavius Liddell, Q.C.

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders Liddell — Permanent Under-Secretary at the Home Office from 1867 to 1885 — as a stout, self-satisfied Establishment figure, hands thrust into trouser pockets, head tilted with mild imperiousness. The caption 'Dodo' is the family nickname by which Liddell was widely known in society, lending the plate an air of clubbable familiarity rather than malice. Ward exaggerates the subject's florid complexion, wild tufted side-hair, and considerable girth: the bureaucratic insider rendered as an amiable relic, comfortable in his own bulk. No ethnic caricature is present. The composition is squarely of its class — a powerful civil servant flattered just enough to buy the print.