English: 'How to avoid the horse duty' - satirical print by John Nixon. 'How to avoid the horse duty' - satirical print by John Nixon. "A stout farmer rides (left to right) past an inn on a cow. The cow befouls and tramples on a paper inscribed 'Tax on Ho[rses]'. The farmer looks triumphantly over his right shoulder at a group of spectators standing at the door of the inn, and snaps his fingers, saying, "Pitt be D------d". A basket containing poultry hangs from the saddle. Part of the inn is on the left of the design, its sign is a stout man holding a foaming tankard gazing at three sacks, inscribed 'Joe Jolly 1784' (a '7' appears to have been etched over the '4'). Five amused spectators stand by the door; from a window above two men applaud the farmer. 1784 Etching". Curator's comment "(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)

Pitt's budget of 1784 imposed an annual tax of 10s. on saddle- and carriage-horses, exempting those used for trade and agriculture; see BMSats 6630, 6914. On 27 Nov. 1784 one Jonathan Thatcher rode his cow to and from the market of Stockport in protest against the horse-tax, Chambers, 'Book of Days', ii. 627, where there is a copy of a similar print."

See also this similar print with curator comment: "For earlier states see 1988,0514.25 and 1988,0514.22. Satire on a recently introduced tax on horse-ownership. A separate strip of paper pasted below the print records: "A farmer in Cheshire, who kept a good team of horses, but had not entered one as a hackney or saddle horse, having occasion to go to Stockport market on Friday, actually saddled a cow, and rode her in triumph to and from the market, attended by a numerous concourse of spectators, who heartily enjoyed the joke - See Morning Herald of Friday Dec. 3, 1784"."