An Oxford University proctor wearing a wig and carrying a cane looks through a quizzing glass at a flowerpot shown to him by a gardener. Pen and ink drawing by or after G.M. Woodward.

Woodward illustrates the value of wigs with an anecdote from his visit to Oxford. On passing a barber's shop, he noticed a fat bald man having his face lathered, who appeared to be someone of little consequence (the subject of the companion drawing). Later he saw the same man, but wearing a wig, "contemplating a curious plant in the physic garden" (the subject of the present drawing). A gardener told him that "the august personage in question was nothing less than a proctor!"