Greenwich Pensioners playing a rough game in Greenwich Park, in which a man with two peg-legs is slung in support by a rope from a tree-branch and then twirled round on his 'pin' as companions haze him with knotted handkerchiefs. He tries to mark one of them with a piece of chalk, who then becomes the next 'monkey'.

The crowd includes a younger 'jack tar' in white-duck-trousered shore-going rig, and a black man, also presumably a sailor. A top-hatted figure, rear right, may be a civilian. Although the Pensioner on the left has a right lower leg he wears a peg-leg strapped onto his knee. This was also presumably a necessary part of the game for those with two normal legs. High good humour prevails. The print, with the inscribed title ' Sling the Monkey' is an illustration to Matthew Henry Barker's 'Nights at Sea; or Sketches of Naval Life During the War' (1837). The central figure being 'slung' is Mr. Nighthead of the story.