View attachment 1040457
Photo by Salvacasco Immagini.
It could be an illustration for "The Passion of Lady Meg" by Paul Little.
1775, London, during the reign of King George III, who was married to Charlotte Sophia. Three young ladies in waiting, Arabella Clarison, Beatrice Digby and Gloria Talmadge, stole the jewellery box from the Queen's room for a joke, intending to return it the next day. The Queen did not appreciate this joke, as a result the young ladies were brought to trial, which initially sentenced them to a public flogging across the back with a cat o' nine tails at Tyburn. The Lord Chamberlain, Sir Henry Percival, persuaded the Queen to commute the sentence. The final sentence was as follows:
"It is the order of Her Royal Majesty, Charlotte Sophia, that you three culprits, Arabella Clarisson, Beatrice Digby and Gloria Talmadge be taken at dawn to the private courtyard of the palace of Her Majesty. There, at the hands of Master Dickon and his assistant Tom, you will each of you be stripped naked save for your hose and shoes, affixed to the whipping post, and dealt a number of set strokes with the birch rod to chasten you for your wicked folly. Thereafter, after the physician has attended you, you will be dressed and put aboard Her Majesty's vessel, the Orion, hence to be transported to the colonies of South Carolina, where at auction upon disembarking, you shall be sold for an indenture of three years each of you to the highest bidder. At the end of such time, if you are then ready to make penance as befits those who have fallen from royal grace, you may be once again admitted to the kingdom."
Three ladies in the Tower of London in the morning before the punishment. The Queen ordered that each girl should receive as many strokes as her age, that is, Arabella - 23, Beatrice - 21 and Gloria - 20.
