'Goochie': Captain Arthur Gooch

Spy's chromolithograph presents Captain Arthur Gooch in profile, his rotund silhouette the plate's comic engine: belly thrust forward, coat straining, umbrella tucked under one arm and a cane under the other, top hat perched with studied dignity. The caption reads simply *'Goochie'* — the affectionate nickname signalling insider familiarity rather than malice. A fluted stone bollard grounds the composition, suggesting racecourse or club grounds. The caricature belongs to Vanity Fair's theatrical series, and Gooch appears as a man of leisure and fashion, his ruddy mutton-chop whiskers and upward gaze projecting self-satisfaction. Ward's technique here is social rather than political: the joke is prosperity itself, the well-fed Englishman blissfully unaware of his own absurdity, too comfortable to be truly deflated.