Just A'goin' to Begin! singing The Royal Hospital with formal

The Royal Hospital with formal gardens and walkways leading down to the River Thames where boats pass up and down

A group of figures stands in the courtyard in front of the hospital

women and children armed with pea shooters

the white trousers of a fashionably dressed gentleman are blackened by the sweep's soot bag

The image has been laterally inverted for use with a vue d' optique viewing box

Just A'goin' to Begin! singing The Royal Hospital with formal'Just A'goin' to Begin!', 1887. WH Smith as a fairground showman, invites the public to his show; the principal parliamentary figures are there, with Charles Parnell dressed as a bandit and Benjamin Disraeli taking the money; behind the platform panels show The Insatiable Irish Growley Wowly, Randolph the Man Sphinx and the Bulgarian Boojum.