Lord Elcho (Francis Richard Charteris), Statesmen No. 56

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Lord Elcho—Scottish Unionist MP, opponent of Gladstone's Reform Bill, and founding spirit of the National Rifle Association—as a broad-shouldered figure in a loose grey suit, hands thrust deep in pockets, a white pith-style hat pressed low over his brow. Long reddish side-whiskers frame a jutting, stubborn profile, the physiognomy exaggerated in the spirit of Italian caricatura Pellegrini imported to London. A small medal ribbon on his lapel signals martial respectability. The caption—'His course has been if not a wise yet a consistent one, and dictated by conscience only'—is backhanded praise: Elcho was admired for principled obstructionism even by those who thought him wrong. No ethnic caricature is present beyond the standard class-coded type of the bluff, self-certain British gentleman.