Patience on a Monument, published by Hannah Humphrey in 1791 (hand-coloured etching)

Lady Cecilia Johnston (d.1817) is in profile, seated on a large golden chamber pot. Her brow is slightly furrowed and her gaze intensely focused. She rests her chin in her hand, her elbow propped upon her knee; the other hand falls in front of the pot and holds a piece of tissue that says “Tranquility.” Behind the pot a young winged cherub covers his nose. At Johnstone’s feet lay a skull and cross bones, the lightly colored live version of the face next to the skulls with eyes wide open and eyebrows raised up at the figure on the pot. The monument is raised on a stone foundation, on which a verse: By Patience Minds an Equal Temper Know, Nor swell too high, nor sink too low; Patience the fiercest grief can charm, And fate’s severest rage disarm; Patience can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please This divine Cecilia found. And to her Husband’s ears, confine the sound.