From the exhibition
Newton Wallop, Viscount Lymington, MP — 'Young Oxford'
Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 13 November 1880

Spy (Leslie Ward) renders Viscount Lymington — heir to the Earl of Portsmouth and Conservative MP — as the very type of the well-bred young parliamentarian fresh from Oxford. The chromolithograph elongates his lean frame almost comically: rust-colored hair and a neat moustache top a brown frock-coat and matching trousers, one hand resting on his hip with studied nonchalance, a grey top hat adding further vertical absurdity. The caption 'Young Oxford' carries Ward's characteristic double-edge — affectionate toward the class, gently mocking its effortless self-assurance. There is no ethnic caricature here; the comedy is purely social, lampooning the confidence of aristocratic youth navigating Westminster as though it were a common room.
Leslie Ward Public domain