A Good Shot. . .
William Wyndham Grenville was nothing if not well-connected. His father was the Whig Prime Minister, George Grenville. His mother was the daughter of the Tory statesman, William Wyndam. He was the uncle of the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. And he was a first cousin of Prime Minister William Pitt, the Younger.
Not surprisingly, Grenville went into politics early, entering the House of Commons at 23, and becoming Paymaster of the Forces at 25. By 1792, the time of this print, he had served in an impressive array of governmental and administrative positions, including Irish secretary and member of the Irish privy council, a commissioner of the board of control, vice-president of the committee of trade, speaker of the house of Commons, Home Secretary, and most recently Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Along the way, he had been elevated to the House of Lords with the title Baron Grenville.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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In December 1791, upon the death of Lord Orford, Grenville was appointed to the Rangership of St James's and Hyde Parks, a sinecure which according to one source was worth approximately £1100 per annum. The appointment set off a war of words and competing salary calculations in Whig and Tory newspapers, the Whigs exaggerating and complaining about Grenville's compensation from his variety of positions, and the Tories defending and minimizing it.
Gillray here takes the side of the Whigs, portraying Grenville as "Billy Ranger,"a (fortune) hunter in St. James's Park successfully shooting the lucrative "Game" emerging from the royal residence at Buckingham House,including "Ranger of the Park." Surrounded by fawning dogs from Whitehall, Grenville has already bagged a hare labeled Secretaryship of State at £7,000, and various gamebirds labeled "Sinecures £9000 pr Annm," "Private Pension £4000," and another one simply labeled £3000."
The quotation beneath the complete title derives from several passages in Henry IV Pt 2 Act 3 Scene 2 where Falstaff is picking men to serve under him in the upcoming battle with Hotspur. The allusion may suggest Gillray's suspicion that money not merit is behind the selection process.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on A Good Shot. . .
- "William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville," Wikipedia
- "Grenville, William Wyndham," Dictionary of National Biography
- London World, December 16, 19, 20, and 22.
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #83
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