Devilish bad flints...
 

This tiny drawing deserves a wider audience. Almost certainly drawn by a teenage girl some time after 1822 it is one of a series of drawings of family life in early nineteenth century England. The running joke is ‘ The Symptoms of….” Symptoms being something that we are occasionally afflicted with but must learn to recognize in order to avoid the consequences. Topics include, inevitably several visual essays on the perils of courtship, but also Symptoms of April the first, Symptoms of an Intellectual party and this one titled Symptoms of the 12th of August.

Here the gentlemen are getting out their dusty flintlocks for the start of the shooting season. Something they probably don’t do very often and the quality of the flints is causing concern. Perhaps someone should have told them the problem wasn’t the flints but as a military commentator of the time remarked misfires could more often be attributed to a lack of hardness in worn out frizzens . Never mind. By next year a visit to the local gunsmith, a cheap and nasty drum nipple percussion conversion and peace and serenity will be restored?

An interesting and amusing piece of social commentary for the period, thanks for posting.