„The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” - George Orwell
‍
Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827), painter, and William Combe (1742-1823), writer, jointly created the character of Doctor Syntax. Doctor Syntax is an artist, clergyman and schoolmaster who seeks his fortune by travelling to strange places and then drawing and describing them for publication - a sort of aesthete Quixote riding an old mare called Grizzle. The pictures follow the good doctor's adventures through the countryside in search of the perfect landscape. Like many other travellers before and after him, he has his share of mishaps - falling into a lake, being chased by a bull, losing all his money at the York racecourse. The comic nature of these misfortunes is quite clear in Rowlandson's engravings.