Mr Yorick and Maria ('A Sentimental Journey' by Laurence Sterne)

after Thomas Stothard (London 1755 - London 1834). Oil painting on canvas (circular), Mr Yorick and Maria ('A Sentimental Journey' by Laurence Sterne), after Thomas Stothard (London 1755 – London 1834), 19th century. A circular painting after an engraving by W. Skelton/Shelton, published 20th October 1798 (& used in vol. II of the 1808 edition, opp. p. 436, printed by Luke Hansard & Sons) of Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768): "When we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria sitting under a poplar – she was sitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand – a small brook ran at the foot of the tree. I bid the postillion go on with the chaise to Moulines – and La Fleur to bespeak my supper – and that I would walk after him. She was dress'd in white, and much as my friend had described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk net. – She had, superadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green ribband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe. – Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a string to her girdle: as I look'd at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string. – 'Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio,' said she. I look'd in Maria's eyes, and saw she was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for as she utter'd them, the tears trickled down her cheeks." Westwood Manor, Wiltshire (Accredited Museum)