A nobleman and an alderman sit at a table neggotiating a marriage settlement between the son of the former and the daughter of the latter. Engraving by Louis Gérard Scotin after William Hogarth, 1745.

A sumptuous room decorated with paintings is occupied by a nobleman with a bandaged foot, a spectacled merchant, a usurer, a lawyer and a couple who sit together on a couchThe nobleman, "Rt. Honourable lord Viscount Squanderfield", sits between a pair of crutches. His bandaged foot signfies gout caused by a life of eating and drinking. He points to a family tree which is inscribed "William Duke of Normandy". The dandified groom wears a patch on his neck and effetely takes a pinch of snuff. Two dogs are manacled together, their bonded state alluding to the fate of this marriage. Through the window a grand Palladian building covered in scaffolding is being built. Among the paintings are various images of martyrs such as Saints Sebastian, Lawrence and Agnes