'A Recruiting Party, 1797'

Coloured etching by Isaac Cruikshank after C Woodward, published by Allen and West, 15 Paternoster Row, London, 18 February 1797.

The recruiting officer holds up a purse to the envy and amazement of some country bumpkins. Recruiting parties were a common sight in villages and at country fairs. Officers would persuade men to enlist with misleading tales of the glamour of army life, and the offer of a 'bounty'. This was a large sum of money, supposedly paid to the new recruit when he enlisted. In fact most of it disappeared in various 'deductions' and the recruit was lucky to see any of it.