Gulliver addressing the Houyhnhnms (from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels [1726])

Sawrey Gilpin, RA (Scalesby Castle 1733 – Brompton 1807). Oil painting on canvas, Gulliver addressing the Houyhnhnms by Sawrey Gilpin, RA (Scalesby Castle 1733 – Brompton 1807), signed and dated, in yellow paint, bottom left: S. Gilpin 1768. Gulliver, standing by his chest/trunk, points to the departing ship behind him with his right hand, and, with his left hand to his heart, addresses two of the Houyhnhnms - a grey and a bay stallion. In the background on the right, there appears to be a waterfall and a lightening-struck tree. A scene from part four of Gulliver's Travels (1726), the satire by Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745 when Gulliver meets the horses and learns that they call themselves Houyhnhnms (which in their language (based on the sound of neighing) means "the perfection of nature"), and that they are the rulers of a society based upon reason; the deformed creatures called Yahoos are human beings in their base form. It is worth noting that the poet Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) also wrote a reply: 'The Grateful Address of the Unhappy Houyhnhnms Now in Slavery and Bondage in England' Scotney Castle, Kent (Accredited Museum)