The print offered for sale here is from the Bohn edition printed in 1851.
Fox and Mrs. Fox are in bed. Fox's slumbers are agonized by the vision of Buonaparte, whose right hand holds a drawn sword over him and his left tightly grasps Fox's collar. A fierce mastiff (John Bull) is flying at Buonaparte. On the right of Fox's bed, Pitt's ghost is endeavouring to rouse him from his sleep. Gillray's "Bed of Roses" took its origin from an expression of Lord Castlereagh in his speech on Windham's motion on the military establishments of the country. Lord Castlereagh concluded an elaborate speech by declaring that the late Administration, in handing over the Government of the country to their successors, had place them on "A Bed of Roses".
