3-052-316 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Last to Go, drawn by F. Barnard, 1872. 'With greeting, chatting, dancing, flirting, and supping...the night has flown...quickly...The merry party has broken up...Mr. and Mrs. Peter Potter, an elderly couple with a snug independence, who have to mind nobody's convenience but their own...are "The Last to Go." Those who know the Dollibatter family must be aware that Peter Potter is Mrs. D.'s first cousin, and, being a kindly old fellow, without children, and without brother or sister, but with a round sum of money, which he may bequeath, in due time, to one or all of her three daughters, Mrs. D. is wisely disposed to make the best of her cousin Peter...even Mary Ann, the faithful and cheerful domestic servant,...knows why she must always pay Mr. Potter a marked degree of attention. As a privileged visitor, he has stayed a little while after the rest of the company, for one glass of grog and a cigar...He goes away, as we see, just comfortably and sensibly jolly, with a pleasant joke for every member of the household at parting; and, since we think Mrs. Potter is a woman of discretion and of average good temper, we trust she will not spoil his innocent self-content by a word or tone of complaining, as they walk home'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.