This is the Greek inscription which was painted over the door to the Great Exhibition Room at Somerset House. It translates as: 'Let no-one who is not a friend to the Muses enter here' - in other words, only art lovers ought to enter into the Royal Academy's hallowed rooms. The inscription is still visible today in Somerset House on the Strand, although the Royal Academy's rooms are now occupied by the Courtauld Gallery. Gillray uses it here to suggest that Boydell has drawn himself a kind of 'charmed circle' that only art lovers should enter, but in fact he himself had no right to be in the circle as he was motivated by greed rather than the love of art.

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