A Freake of Fortune

Edward Linley Sambourne (1844-1910)

Engraving

Punch, Vol. 83, 15 July 1882, p. 22

Sambourne shows the building magnate Charles James Freake, recently elevated to a baronetcy, as a working builder. In workplace clothes, trowel in hand, he sits atop a ladder which is balanced against scaffolding. The "weight that pulled me up" (referred to in the caption, purportedly from the South Kensington edition of Shakespeare) is the Royal College of Music, top left, the rights of which he made over to the then Prince of Wales. It was later renamed the Royal College of Organists. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Research by Shirley Nicholson. Image downloaded, text and formatting, by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]