Today’s Random Illustrations of the Day are from The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812), the first of three comic poems by William Combe and illustrated by cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson (who was born #OnThisDay in 1756) about a dilettante scholar who conceives of a scheme to achieve fame and fortune by riding around and writing about his travels, followed in 1820 by Doctor Syntax in Search of Consolation and Doctor Syntax in Search of a Wife in 1821, and the two continued to collaborate on several other comic poems not part of the Doctor Syntax trilogy. These extremely silly (and quite popular) books were commissioned by art publisher Rudolf Ackermann.

(The fun captions that go with the pictures form almost a synopsis of the proceedings in themselves, as the good doctor is seen “Stopt By Highwaymen,” “Disputing His Bill with the Landlady,”  “Pursued by a Bull,” or as he “Mistakes a Gentleman’s House for an Inn.”)

Doctor Syntax Setting out on His Tour to the Lakes.

Doctor Syntax Loosing His Way.

Doctor Syntax Stopt by Highwaymen.

Doctor Syntax Bound to a Tree by Highwaymen.

Doctor Syntax Disputing His Bill With the Landlady.

Doctor Syntax Copying the Wit of the Window.

Doctor Syntax Entertained at College.

Doctor Syntax Pursued By The Bull.

Doctor Syntax Mistakes a Gentleman’s House for an Inn.

Doctor Syntax Meditating on the Tomb Stones.

Doctor Syntax Tumbling into the Water.

Doctor Syntax Losing His Money on the Race Ground at York.

Doctor Syntax at a Review.

Doctor Syntax with My Lord.

Doctor Syntax Made Free of the Cellar.

Doctor Syntax Sketching the Lake.

Doctor Syntax Drawing After Nature.

Doctor Syntax Robb’d of His Property.

Doctor Syntax Sells Grizzle.

Doctor Syntax. Rural Sport.

Doctor Syntax with the Dairy Maid.

Doctor Syntax at Liverpool.

Doctor Syntax Reading His Tour.

Syntax Preaching.

Doctor Syntax & Bookseller.

Doctor Syntax at Covent Garden Theatre.

The Doctor’s Dream.

Doctor Syntax Returned From His Tour.

Doctor Syntax Taking Possession of His Living.