In rehearsal: Theatre Royal of the United Kingdoms…
London: printed for J. Asperne by E. MacLeish, [c. 1803]
From Sel.1.25

Imitating the form of a playbill, this poster both calls attention to the possibility of a French invasion and anticipates its likely outcome. It emphasizes the reliance placed on the Royal Navy to defend the United Kingdom—the ‘wooden walls of old England’ being a reference to the timber hulls of naval vessels—and highlights the role that militia units would have played had the French landed in any number. The posters sold for two pence, or 12 shillings for 100: the publisher combined patriotic feeling with shrewd commercial sense by encouraging ‘Noblemen, Magistrates, and Gentlemen’ to purchase multiple copies for display in their neighbourhoods.