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Rudolph Ackermann provides valuable resources for anybody studying early 19th century England. Along with the fashion plates I’ve often shown here, his Repository included color plates of country estates and London scenes. Ackermann is responsible as well for the Microcosm of London, which shows us interiors as well as exteriors of London landmarks.
The above plate, from the 1811 Repository, offered what I thought was an interesting view of the Horse Guards. The road is intriguing. At different times and locations, London streets might be dirt or wood or stones, but they usually boasted layers of horse manure. This, however, looks like a dirt road.
And does anybody know who the “vain, but shirtless Frenchman” is?
Here's an image from about 100 years later, courtesy Library of Congress.
One of us -- 
2 comments:
My guess would be that they mean Napoleon Bonaparte.But the article was written before the 1812 war when he apparently he when he entered Orcha "The heroic marshal had lost everything...His clothes were in tatters.He had not even a Shirt." (The life of Napoleon Bonaparte by John Stevens Cabott Abbott) pge 411 Still Napoleon was THE Frenchman of the period to the English at the time so maybe he lost his Shirt a number of times !
Another candidate could be the Chevalier d'Eon, who dressed as a woman, and certainly wore ruffles, as the picture in Wiki shows - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27Eon
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