[1] His more serious efforts were no great success, but his caricatures are as famous as those of his contemporaries Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, good examples being his A Long Story (1782), Country Club (1788), and Barber's Shop (1803).

He was a popular character, and the friend of most of the notabilities of his day, whom he never offended by attempting political satire; his easy circumstances and social position (he was commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the West Suffolk Militia on 26 August 1788,[4] and was appointed equerry to the Duke of York and Albany in 1787) allowed him the leisure to practise his talents.

[2] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes his A Long Minuet as Danced at Bath as the most successful of his lifetime, using an "innovative story-telling" format that is considered a forerunner to the comic strip.

[1] His caricatures were regularly reissued, even as he turned his attention to other subjects: he finished half of a commissioned set of 48 drawings of Shakespearean works before abandoning the series in 1796, and after the death of his wife and eldest son he took up oil painting.

[1] In August 1771 he married Catherine,[1] eldest daughter of Kane William Horneck (an officer in the Royal Engineers)[5] and his wife Hannah Muggles.