William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville, dispensing Roman Catholic tracts from a balloon to the people of Oxford; representing his installation as Chancellor of Oxford University. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1810.

Baron Grenville, an advocate of Catholic emancipation, is caricatured as a balloonist with a vast backside, exploiting his Chancellorship ceremony (3-6 July 1810) to impose Catholic rites on the university

The balloon has the face of his nephew Earl Temple, i.e. Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, first duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776–1839), who was known as Earl Temple from 1784 to 1813: "he grew immensely fat" (Oxford dictionary of national biography)

The buildings shown include various Oxford landmarks such as the Radcliffe Camera (left), All Souls Chapel (right), Tom Tower at Christ Church (behind and above the chapel), the twin towers of All Souls (to the right of the balloon), and the gateway to All Souls (on the left of the balloon)

On the left are three bishops mounted on braying asses, suggesting subservience to the new Chancellor. Above them members of the Grenville family and other politicians are shown in the door and windows of the Radcliffe Camera. On a ledge of the Radcliffe Camera, the Whig politician Michael Angelo Taylor is caricatured as a chicken: he had described himself in a debate in 1785 as "but a chicken" in his profession of law

More politicians are shown on the right waving their mortar-boards towards Baron Grenville. In front of them is Richard Brinsley Sheridan, portrayed as half naked (from poverty) and worsened by drink

London (27, St. James's Street) : H. Humphrey, August 8th 1810.

1 print : etching ; image 48.8 x 37.8 cm

He steers his flight aloft, incumbent on the dusky air that felt unusual weight. Par. Lost. Lib.1 l. 225. ... Tentanda via est qua me quoque possim Tollere humo ... Virgil, Geor: Js. Gillray fec &c. "Tentanda via est qua me quoque possim Tollere humo": Virgil, Georgics III, 8-9, meaning "A way must be tried by which I may raise myself also off the ground".

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, Vol. VIII, London 1947, no. 11570

Wellcome Collection 36363i