John Gilpin illustrated by C.E. Brock

John Gilpin (18th century) was featured as the subject in a well-known comic ballad of 1782 by William Cowper, entitled The Diverting History of John Gilpin. Cowper had heard the story from his friend Lady Austen.
Gilpin was said to be a wealthy draper from Cheapside in London, who owned land at Olney, Buckinghamshire, near where Cowper lived. It is likely that he was a Mr Beyer, a linen draper of the Cheapside corner of Paternoster Row. The poem tells how Gilpin and his wife and children became separated during a journey to the Bell Inn, Edmonton, after Gilpin loses control of his horse, and is carried ten miles farther to the town of Ware.(Wikipedia)
Charles Edmund Brock (5 February 1870 – 28 February 1938) was a widely published English painter, line artist and book illustrator, who signed most of his work C. E. Brock.

 Frontispiece

 "To-morrow is our wedding day"

 "Where they did all 'get' in"

 "T'was long before the customers were suited to their mind"

  "Equipped from top to toe"

"The snorting beast began to trot"

 "At last it flew away"

"The bottles twain behind his back were shattered at a blow"

 "What news? what news? your tidings tell"

"A braying ass did sing most loud and clear"

 "Stop thief! stop thief! a highwayman!"

 "For he got first to town"