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Pitt's budget of 1784 imposed an annual tax of 10s. on saddle- and carriage-horses, exempting those used for trade and agriculture; see BMSats 6630, 6914.
On 27 Nov. 1784 one Jonathan Thatcher rode his cow to and from the market of Stockport in protest against the horse-tax, Chambers, 'Book of Days', ii. 627, where there is a copy of a similar print."
See also this similar print with curator comment: "For earlier states see 1988,0514.25 and 1988,0514.22. Satire on a recently introduced tax on horse-ownership. A separate strip of paper pasted below the print records: "A farmer in Cheshire, who kept a good team of horses, but had not entered one as a hackney or saddle horse, having occasion to go to Stockport market on Friday, actually saddled a cow, and rode her in triumph to and from the market, attended by a numerous concourse of spectators, who heartily enjoyed the joke - See Morning Herald of Friday Dec. 3, 1784"."