Curate is a British term for the assistant to a vicar of the Church of England. The drawing consists of hatched fragments of an egg shell with a lower case letter on each fragment that together spell "eggshellent." Here Furnival appears to be poking fun at the British religious institution. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Both the caption and the egg shell have been fragmented in this drawing. Gibbon refers to the British historian, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) who wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire." Furnival's drawing is a metaphor for this book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The shape of an egg shell is formed by five eccentric egg shells with different hatched markings. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.