] It shows an English couple visiting France in 1814-1815, and the French are snickering and pointing at their clothes, while the picture caricatures the French people's own clothes. Now Laver would have us believe that this picture is a French caricature, but I find this rather hard to believe...

... er, yes, I think you're right.

Incidentally, the French did laugh at English fasions. The cartoon is presumably after the defeat of Napoleon when hordes of English descended on France, but it also happened before then. In 1813, Napoleon gave Sir Humphrey Davy passports so he could visit France and collect his award from the French Academy (this, mark you, when England and France were desperately at war). Lady Davy's English fashions were so much mocked in Paris that she couldn't go for a walk in them.