This engraving was originally published as an illustration to Pierce Egan’s second series of accounts of life in London lived by Jerry Hawthorn and his friends Corinthian Tom and Bob Logic. In it we see the furore created by the escape of a kangaroo at London Zoo, especially on the character called 'the Fat Knight' whom Corinthian Tom in the story meets in the village of Pickwick, and who some have seen as Dickens' inspiration for his much better-known portly character Mr. Pickwick.

Pierce Egan (1772-1849) was a sporting journalist who made his name with the monthly journal Life in London, or The day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and sprees through the metropolis. Costing a shilling an issue and published from 1821 until 1822, the picaresque tales illustrated by the brothers George and Robert Cruikshank incorporated stories of the follies of fashionable society and everyday London life and were instantly popular, spawning pirate editions and stage versions, one superintended by Robert Cruikshank. The monthly instalments of the story ended in 1822, but Egan returned to the theme in 1828, rebuking the pirates and plagiarists with his Finish to the adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic, illustrated by Robert Cruikshank.