Miss Kilmansegg and her precious leg
![Thomas Hood, 1799-1845. Miss Kilmansegg and her precious leg. [London, E. Arnold; New York, S. Buckley], [1904].](../wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/02/3_11_HoodLeg-web.jpg)
Thomas Hood’s satirical poem criticizes excessive consumption and the thirst for wealth with a moralizing tale of a young woman, who after losing her leg in an accident replaces it with a prosthetic made of gold. Though her suitors increase, she is repaid for her greed when a penniless count marries her for her money and then kills her with her own “precious leg”. This woodcut illustration makes clear mockery of Miss Killmansegg’s social pretensions and the hovering suitors who lust after her riches. Both text and image caution against such excesses, reminding the reader of the nobler path of simplicity and honest labour.