The two prints here given are selected as two of the earliest avowed productions of Hogarth. The allegory in both is somewhat obscure; but the figures are in the manner of Callot, and in a spirited and masterly style. They were both published in 1721, and are a proof that at this early period the admirable vein of satire which he possessed was directed against the vices and follies of the age.

In the first of them we see (to use an expression of Mr. Walpole) "the Devil cutting Fortune into collops," to gratify the avaricious hopes of the adventurers in the South Sea Bubble; and persons ascending the ladder to ride upon wooden horses; alluding to the desperate game which was played by the South Sea Directors in England in the year 1720, to the utter destruction of many opulent families. The little figure with his hand in the pocket of a fat personage was supposed by Mr. Steevens to have been intended for Pope, who profited by the South Sea scheme; and the fat man to be meant for Gay, who was a loser in that iniquitous project. Mr. John Law, a native of Edinburgh, was the projector of this bubble; and was also author of the famous Mississippi scheme in France, by which he ruined thousands. To escape popular vengeance he fled to Venice, where he died in poverty in 1729.

THE LOTTERY.

Under the print of "The Lottery," the artist has given a full description of his own ideas, which otherwise, at this distance of time, it would have been difficult to elucidate.

MASQUERADES AND OPERAS—BURLINGTON GATE.

This satirical performance of Hogarth, which is commonly called "The Small Masquerade Ticket," is supposed to have been invented and drawn at the instigation of Sir James Thornhill, out of revenge, because Lord Burlington had preferred Mr. Kent before him to paint for George the Second at his palace at Kensington; and the leader of the figures hurrying to a masquerade, crowned with a cap and bells, and a garter round his right leg, has been said to be intended for that monarch, who was very partial to those nocturnal amusements, and bestowed a thousand pounds towards their support. The purse with a label "£1000," which the satyr holds immediately before him, gives some probability to the supposition.

The kneeling figure on the show-cloth, pouring gold at the feet of Cuzzoni the Italian singer (who is drawing the money towards her with a rake), represents the Earl of Peterborough; and on the label is written, "Pray accept £8000." Mr. Heidegger, the regulator of the masquerade, is also exhibited at a window, with the letter H under him. Of the three figures in the centre of the plate, the middle one is Lord Burlington, a nobleman of considerable taste in painting and architecture. On one side of him is Mr. Campbell the architect; on the other, some artist now unknown. On a board is a display of the words, "Long Room: Fawkes' dexterity of hand." On the opposite corner is the figure of Harlequin, pointing to a label, on which is written, "Dr. Faustus is here." This was a pantomime performed to crowded houses throughout two seasons.

In this print all the figures have a strong resemblance to those of Callot; and the follies of the town are very severely satirized by the representation of multitudes, properly habited, crowding to the masquerade, opera, and pantomime; whilst the works of our greatest dramatic writers are trundled through the streets in a wheel-barrow, and cried as waste paper for shops; among these may be distinguished Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Congreve, Otway, Farquhar, and Addison. In the first copy of this print, instead of Ben Jonson's name on a label, we have "Pasquin, N^o XI." This was a periodical paper published in 1722-3; and the number specified is particularly severe on operas, etc.

As a further illustration of the taste of the times, the artist has given a view of Burlington Gate, with a figure, I believe, intended to represent the then fashionable artist William Kent, on the summit, brandishing his palette and pencils, and placed in a more elevated situation than either Michael Angelo or Raphael, who, seated beneath, become the two supporters to this favourite of Lord Burlington.

Some verses (and those not always the same) engraved on a separate piece of copper are found under the first impressions. For example, under the earliest impressions of 1724:

Under another impression:

I have been the more particular in describing this plate, as it appears to have been the first which Hogarth published on his own account, and respecting which he pathetically says: "I had to encounter a monopoly of printsellers, equally mean and destructive to the ingenious; for the first plate I published, called 'The Taste of the Town,' in which the reigning follies were lashed, had no sooner begun to take a run, than I found copies of it in the print-shops vending at half price, while the original prints were returned to me again; and I was thus obliged to sell the plate for whatever these pirates pleased to give me, as there was no place of sale but their shops. Owing to this and other circumstances, by engraving, until I was near thirty, I could do little more than maintain myself; but even then I was a punctual paymaster."

BEGGARS' OPERA BURLESQUED.

This plate seems at once to represent the exhibition of The Beggars' Opera, and the rehearsal of an Italian one. In the former, all the characters are drawn with the heads of different animals: as Polly with a cat's; Lucy with a sow's; Macheath with that of an ass; Lockit, and Mr. and Mrs. Peachum, with those of an ox, a dog, and an owl. In the latter, several noblemen appear conducting the chief female singer forward on the stage; and perhaps are offering her money, or protection from a figure that is rushing towards her with a drawn sword.

Harmony, flying in the air, turns her back on the English playhouse, and hastens towards the rival theatre. Musicians stand in front of the former, playing on the Jew's harp, the salt-box, the bladder and string, bagpipes, etc. On one side are people of distinction, some of whom kneel, as if making an offer to Polly, or paying their adorations to her. To these are opposed a butcher, etc., expressing similar applause. Apollo and one of the muses are fast asleep beneath the stage. A man is indelicately seated under a wall hung with ballads, and showing his contempt of such compositions by the use he makes of them. A sign of the star, a gibbet, and some other circumstances less intelligible, appear in the background.

TWELVE PRINTS OF HUDIBRAS.

This well-imagined series of plates was designed by Hogarth, and engraved by himself, for the matchless poem of Butler. Each plate is illustrated by an appropriate quotation from the facetious satirist; and as our ingenious artist formed his designs from an attentive perusal of the poem, his engravings, and the extracts selected under each of them, reciprocally explain each other. "His 'Hudibras,'" says Mr. Walpole, "was the first of his works that marked him as a man above the common; yet," adds the critic, somewhat too fastidiously, "what made him then noticed now surprises us, to find so little humour in an undertaking so congenial to his talents."

The original title ran thus: "Twelve excellent and most diverting Prints, taken from the celebrated Poem of Hudibras, wrote by Samuel Butler; exposing the villany and hypocrisy of the times. Invented and engraved on twelve copperplates by William Hogarth; and are humbly dedicated to William Ware, Esq., of Great Houghton, in Northamptonshire, and Mr. Allan Ramsay, of Edinburgh."

Allan Ramsay subscribed for thirty sets, and the number of subscribers amounted to one hundred and ninety-two. The original plates were afterwards purchased by Mr. Philip Overton. They subsequently passed into the hands of the late Mr. Robert Sayer; and it is certain that Hogarth often lamented the having parted with his property in them without ever having had an opportunity to improve them.

In the first of these plates is a portrait inscribed, "Mr. Samuel Butler, born 1612, Author of Hudibras, died 1680." The basso-relievo of the pedestal represents Butler's Genius in a car, lashing round Mount Parnassus, in the persons of Hudibras and Ralpho, Rebellion, Hypocrisy, and Ignorance, the reigning vices and follies of the time. In the scene of the Committee (Plate IX.), one of the members has his gloves on his head. "I am told," says Mr. Steevens, "this whimsical custom once prevailed among our sanctified fraternity; but it is in vain, I suppose, to ask the reason why." This doubt, however, has since produced from a respectable divine an intimation that he has frequently heard his father, who died some years ago at an advanced age, notice the custom of placing the gloves on the head at church as not uncommon in cold weather.

In the earliest impressions of Plate XI., the words "Down with the Rumps" are not inserted on the scroll.

JUST VIEW OF THE BRITISH STAGE.

Mr. Walpole, in his Catalogue, thus describes this plate: "Booth, Wilkes, and Cibber, contriving a Pantomime; a Satire on Farces."

Though the inscription engraved under it is sufficiently explanatory, it may be added that Mr. Devoto was scene-painter either to Drury Lane or Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and also to Goodman's Fields Theatre; that the ropes mentioned in the inscription are no other than halters, suspended over the heads of the three managers; and that the labels issuing from their respective mouths convey the following characteristic words. The airy Wilkes, who dangles the effigies of Punch, exclaims, "Poor R—ch! faith, I pitty him." The Laureate Cibber, who is amusing himself with playing with harlequin, invokes the muse painted on the ceiling: "Assist, ye sacred Nine!" And the solemn Booth, letting down the figure of Jack Hall into the forica, is most tragically exclaiming, with an oath, "Ha! this will do." At the same instant Ben Jonson's ghost is rising through the stage, and insulting a pantomime statue fallen from its base. Over the figure of Hall is suspended a parcel of waste paper, consisting of leaves torn from The Way of the World, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius CÆsar. A fiddler is seen hanging by a cord in the air, and performing, with a scroll before him, which proclaims, "Music for the What" [meaning perhaps the "What d'ye call it"] entertainment. A pamphlet on the table exhibits a print of Jack Sheppard in confinement. A dragon is also preparing to fly; a dog thrusts his head out of the kennel; a flask acquires motion by machinery, etc. The countenances of Tragedy and Comedy, on each side of the stage, are concealed by the bills for Harlequin Dr. Faustus, Harlequin Shepherd, etc.

Vivetur ingenio is the motto over the curtain.

EXAMINATION OF BAMBRIDGE.

This very fine picture, Hogarth himself tells us, was painted in 1729 for Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, Bart., at that time Knight of the Shire for Aberdeen, and one of the Committee represented in the painting,—many of whom attended daily, and some of them twice a day.

That every other figure in this print is a genuine portrait, there cannot be the least doubt, though at this distant period it is not possible to identify the particular persons; they are all, however, to be found in the following list of the names of the Committee:—

"The scene," says Mr. Walpole, "is the Committee. On the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half-starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn for Iago in the moment of detection. Villany, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance; his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, it is the most striking that ever was drawn; if it was not, it is still finer."

This Committee was first appointed, Feb. 25, 1728-9, to examine into the state of the gaols within the kingdom; and the persons here represented under examination were—Thomas Bambridge, then Warden of the Fleet Prison, and John Huggins, his predecessor in that office. Both were declared "notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanours." It was the unanimous resolution of the Committee, "That Thomas Bambridge, the acting Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, hath wilfully permitted several debtors to the Crown in great sums of money, as well as debtors to divers of his Majesty's subjects, to escape; hath been guilty of the most notorious breaches of his trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanours in the execution of his said office; and hath arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed, prisoners for debt under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of this kingdom." Bambridge was in consequence disqualified by Act of Parliament; and he cut his throat twenty years after.

It was also resolved, "That John Huggins, Esq., late Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, did, during the time of his wardenship, wilfully permit several considerable debtors in his custody to escape; and was notoriously guilty of great breaches of his trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanours, in the execution of the said office;" and he was for some time committed to Newgate, but afterwards lived in credit to the age of ninety.

KING HENRY VIII. AND ANNA BULLEYN.

This plate, copied from a painting in the portico of the old great room in Vauxhall Gardens, has very idly been imagined to contain the portraits of Frederick Prince of Wales, and the beautiful but unfortunate Lady Vane; but the stature and faces both of the lady and Henry are totally unlike their supposed originals.

CROWNS, MITRES, MACES, ETC.

This plate forms so important a feature in the annals of Hogarth, that it requires his own elucidation:—

The statute, which took place June 24, 1735, was drawn up by our artist's friend Mr. Huggins, who took for his model the eighth of Queen Anne in favour of literary property. But it was not so accurately executed as entirely to remedy the evil; for, in a cause founded on it, which came before Lord Hardwicke in Chancery, that excellent lawyer determined that no assignee, claiming under an assignment from the original inventor, could take any benefit by it.

Hogarth, immediately after the passing of the Act, published this print with the following inscription:—

"In humble and grateful acknowledgment
of the grace and goodness of the Legislature,
manifested in the Act of Parliament for the Encouragement
of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, etc.,
obtained by the Endeavours, and almost at the sole Expense,
of the Designer of this Print in the Year 1735;
by which,
not only the Professors of those Arts were rescued
from the Tyranny, Frauds, and Piracies
of Monopolizing Dealers,
and legally entitled to the Fruits of their own Labours;
but Genius and Industry were also prompted
by the most noble and generous Inducements to exert themselves.
Emulation was excited;
Ornamental Compositions were better understood;
and every Manufacture, where Fancy has any concern,
was gradually raised to a pitch of Perfection before unknown;
insomuch, that those of Great Britain
are at present the most elegant
and the most in Esteem of any in Europe."

The royal Crown at the top is darting its rays on mitres, coronets, the Chancellor's great seal, the Speaker's hat, etc. etc.; and on a scroll is written, "An Act for the Encouragement of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching, by vesting the properties thereof in the inventors and engravers, during the time therein mentioned."

The plate was afterwards used as a receipt for the subscriptions to his four prints of "The Election."

In 1767, three years after Hogarth's death, his widow stated, in a petition to the House of Commons, "that she was informed that a Bill was depending in the House to amend an Act made in the eighth year of the reign of his late Majesty, for the encouragement of the arts of designing, engraving, and etching: that her late husband was the inventor, engraver, and publisher of various designs—moral, humorous, and historical; the sole property whereof was vested in him by the said Act for the term of fourteen years; that her chief support arose from the sale of her late husband's works; that, since his decease, many persons had copied, printed, and published several of those works, and still continued to do so; and that the sale of those spurious copies, both at home and for exportation, had already been a great prejudice to the petitioner, and, unless timely prevented, would deprive her of her chief support and dependence; and praying that provision might be made for vesting in her the property of her said husband's works." The petition was thought reasonable; and a clause was added to the Bill for "vesting in, and securing to, Jane Hogarth, widow, the property in certain prints."

THE ROYAL MASQUERADE.

This very interesting scene, which may be dated early in 1755, is thus anticipated by Mr. Walpole, in a letter to Mr. Richard Bentley, Dec. 24, 1754:—"The Russian ambassador is to give a masquerade for the birth of the little great prince (the Czar, Paul I.). The King lends him Somerset House: he wanted to borrow the palace over against me, and sent to ask it of the cardinal-nephew (Henry Earl of Lincoln, nephew to the Duke of Newcastle, to whose title he succeeded), who replied, 'Not for half Russia!'"

The print abounds with real portraits of personages of the first distinction, of whom several may be identified by the following extract from the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 89:—"Feb. 6.—The Russian ambassador gave a most magnificent ball at Somerset House. His Majesty came a little after eight, dressed in a black domino, tie-wig, and gold-laced hat. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was in a blue and silver robe, and her head greatly ornamented with jewels. The Prince of Wales was in a pink and silver dress. Prince Edward in a pink satin waistcoat, with a belt adorned with diamonds. Princess Augusta in a rich gold stuff. The Duke (of Cumberland) was in a Turkish dress, with a large bunch of diamonds in his turban. A noble lady shone in the habit of a nymph, embroidered over with stars studded with brilliants to the amount of £100,000. In short, the dresses of the whole assembly were the richest that could possibly be devised upon such an occasion; and the whole entertainment, particularly the desert, was the most elegant that expense could furnish. Few exhibitions of this kind have equalled it,—none excelled it. The number of persons were above a thousand."

The original painting formed part of the fine collection of the late Roger Palmer, Esq., on whose death it devolved, with the rest of a very ample property, to his only sister, Elizabeth, wife of the brave and benevolent Captain Joseph Budworth, who assumed the name and arms of Palmer.

RICH'S TRIUMPHANT ENTRY.

This plate represents the removal of Rich, and his scenery, authors, actors, etc., from Lincoln's-Inn Fields to the new house. The scene is the area of Covent Garden, across which, leading toward the door of the theatre, is a long procession, consisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning, performers, etc.; and at the head of them Mr. Rich (invested with the skin of the famous dog in Perseus and Andromeda) riding with his mistress in a chariot driven by harlequin, and drawn by satyrs.

Some indifferent verses, which accompanied the original publication, allude to Walker and Hall, the original Macheath and Lockit, and conclude thus:

By the "Man of Taste," Mr. Pope was apparently designed. He is represented in his tie-wig, at a dark corner of the Piazza, amusing himself (not very delicately) with the Beggars' Opera. The letter P is over his head; his little sword is significantly placed, and the peculiarity of his figure is well preserved. The reason why our artist has assigned such an employment to him, we can only guess. It seems, indeed, from Dr. Johnson's Life of Gay, that Pope did not think the Beggars' Opera would succeed. Swift, however, was of the same opinion; and yet the former supported the piece on the first night of exhibition, and the latter defended it in his Intelligencer against the attacks of Dr. Herring, then Preacher to the Society of Lincoln's-Inn, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Hogarth might be wanton in his satire, might have founded it on an idle report, or might have sacrificed truth to the prejudice of Sir James Thornhill, whose quarrel on another occasion he is supposed to have taken up, when he ridiculed the translator of Homer, in a view of "The Gate of Burlington House."

THE POOL OF BETHESDA, AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

These magnificent prints are placed among the early productions of Hogarth, as the paintings from which they are copied were completed in 1737; and in 1748 a small copy of the "Pool of Bethesda" was engraved by Ravenet, as a frontispiece to Stackhouse's Family Bible.

Mr. Walpole observes, that "the burlesque turn of our artist's mind mixed itself with his most serious compositions; and that, in the 'Pool of Bethesda,' a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man (perhaps woman) who sought the same celestial remedy." To this I may add, that the figure of the priest, in the "Good Samaritan," is supremely comic, and rather resembles some purse-proud burgomaster, than the character it was designed to represent.

In the "Pool of Bethesda" is introduced, as I was assured by Dr. Ducarel, a faithful portrait of Nell Robinson, a celebrated courtezan, at whose shrine both Hogarth and the Doctor had in early life occasionally paid their devoirs.

On the subject of these two very fine prints, it will not only be candid, but amusing and instructive, to transcribe Hogarth's own unvarnished remarks:—

While these pictures were in progress, it was announced that "among the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was lately chosen Mr. William Hogarth, the celebrated painter, who, we are told, designs to paint the staircase of the said hospital, and thereby become a benefactor to it by giving his labours gratis." And a newspaper of July 14, 1737, says, "Yesterday the scaffolding was taken down from before the picture of 'The Good Samaritan,' which is esteemed a very curious piece."

Hogarth paid his friend Lambert for painting the landscape in this picture; and to the imaginary merits of his coadjutor, the Analysis, p. 26, thus bears testimony: "The sky always gradates one way or other, and the rising or setting sun exhibits it in great perfection; the imitating of which was Claude de Lorraine's peculiar excellence, and it is now Mr. Lambert's."

Both pictures, which appear of an oblong square in the engravings, in the originals are surrounded with scroll-work which cuts off the corners of them, etc. All these ornaments, together with compartments carved at the bottom, were the work of Mr. Richards. These the late Mr. Alderman Boydell caused to be engraved on separate plates, and appended to those above them, on which sufficient space had not been left. Hogarth requested that these paintings might never be varnished. They appear, therefore, to disadvantage, the decorations about them having, within these few years past, been highly glazed.

"The Pool of Bethesda" has suffered much from the sun; and "The Good Samaritan," when cleaned about the year 1780, was pressed so hard against the straining frame, that several creases were made in the canvas.

MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ.

This elegant scholar was a mathematician and antiquary of much celebrity in the philosophical annals of literature. In 1713, at the early age of 24, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1741 was elected President. Mr. Folkes was also an early Member of the Society of Antiquaries, having been elected in 1719-20; and his communications to both societies were numerous and valuable. His knowledge in ancient and modern coins was very extensive; and the most important work he produced, was The History of the English Gold and Silver Coin, from the Conquest to his own time.

Algernon, the famous Duke of Somerset, who had been many years President of the Society of Antiquaries, dying February 9, 1749-50, Mr. Folkes, who was then one of the Vice-Presidents, was immediately chosen to succeed his Grace; and was continued President by the Charter of Incorporation of that Society, November 2, 1751. But he was soon disabled from presiding in person either in that or the Royal Society, being seized, on the 26th of September the same year, with a palsy, which deprived him of the use of his left side. On the 30th of November 1753, he resigned the Presidentship of the Royal Society; but continued President of the Society of Antiquaries till his death. After having languished nearly three years, a second attack of his disorder, on the 25th of June 1754, put an end to his life on the 28th of that month.

The original portrait is preserved in the meeting-room of the Royal Society.

BISHOP HOADLEY.

This portrait is in grand style, though rather in the French manner. The painting, and the plate engraved from it by Baron, were carefully preserved in the Bishop's family.

Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, a prelate of considerable eminence, was born November 4, 1676; educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge; elected Lecturer of St. Mildred, Poultry, 1701; Rector of St. Peter-le-Poor in 1704, and of Streatham in 1710; King's Chaplain, February 16, 1715-16; Bishop of Bangor, March 18 following; translated to Hereford in 1721, to Salisbury in 1723, and in 1734 to Winchester, which he held nearly twenty-seven years, till on April 17, 1761, at his house at Chelsea, in the same calm he had enjoyed amidst all the storms that blew around him, he died, full of years and honours, beloved and regretted by all good men, in the 85th year of his age. Few writers of eminence have been so frequently or so illiberally traduced; yet fewer still have had the felicity of living till a nation became their converts, and of knowing "that sons have blushed their fathers were their foes." His useful labours, which will ever be esteemed by all lovers of the natural, civil, and religious rights of Englishmen, were collected in 1773, in three folio volumes.

The Bishop had two sons: Benjamin Hoadley, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Frederick Prince of Wales, and to George the Second; of high rank in his profession; and well known by many valuable writings, more especially by his comedy of The Suspicious Husband. He died, in his father's lifetime, in 1757. The other son, the Rev. Dr. John Hoadley, Chancellor of Winchester, was also a most amiable man, and an elegant poet. He was the editor of his father's collected works, introduced by a well-digested biographical memoir. He died March 10, 1776; and with him the name of Hoadley became extinct. His relict, who long survived him, possessed several original paintings by Hogarth, which were afterwards the property of the late Mr. Archdeacon D'Oyley.

MR. RANBY'S HOUSE AT CHISWICK.

This view, etched by Hogarth in 1748 without any inscription, was first published by his widow in 1781.

HYMEN AND CUPID.

This neat plate was engraved as a ticket for the masque of Alfred, performed in 1748, at Cliveden House, before the Prince and Princess of Wales, on the Princess Augusta's birthday. It was afterwards intended as a receipt for "Sigismunda."

FALSE PERSPECTIVE.

Early in 1753, Hogarth presented to his friend Mr. Joshua Kirby this whimsical satirical design; which arose from the mistakes of Sir Edward Walpole, who was learning to draw without being taught perspective: an anecdote recorded by Mr. Steevens, on Sir Edward's own authority.

To point out in a strong light the errors which would be likely to happen from the want of acquaintance with those principles, Hogarth's design was produced.

A traveller is represented on an eminence, lighting his pipe from a candle presented to him by a woman from a chamber-window at the distance of at least a mile. We are also astonished at the representation near it, of a crow seated on the spray of a tree, without incommoding by its weight the tender sprouts issuing from its branches; and our astonishment increases when we recollect that this tree, if weighed in the balance with the bird, would hardly be found to preponderate. The tree on which the feathered animal is so securely stationed is, however, of a much greater height and magnitude than those which are nearer, and which gradually diminish as they approach the foreground. The sheep, taking example from the trees, are very large at a distance, but regularly become minute by their proximity, the nearest being almost invisible. Both ends of the church, the top, and the whole extent of one side of it, are clearly seen. To take the view which Hogarth has represented, we must, at the same time, be above, at each end, and in front of that parochial erection; but he has not been so complaisant as to favour us with the sight of the road on the bridge, which the vessel seems determined to sail over, while the waggon and horses appear floating on the other side. A fellow in a boat, nearly under the bridge, is attempting to shoot a swan on the other side of it; though, as he is situated, he cannot possibly have a view of the object whose destruction he pretends to be aiming at. The waggon and horses, which are supposed to be on the bridge, are more distant than the tree which grows on the further side.

Many other absurdities are visible in this curious perspective view, which are too obvious to escape observation: such as the signpost extending to a house at the distance of half a mile, and the remote row of trees concealing part of the nearer sign of the half-moon; the angler's line interfering with another belonging to his patient brother, though at a considerable distance from each other; and the tops and bottoms of the barrels being equally visible.

The favour of this communication was gratefully acknowledged by Kirby, who in 1754 prefixed it to Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective made easy both in Theory and Practice, with a dedication to Hogarth, who subsequently furnished him with a serious design for the plate which is described at page 132.

THE FARMER'S RETURN.

The little drama by Mr. Garrick, in which this exquisite frontispiece first appeared, was thus prefaced: "The following interlude was prepared for the stage, merely with a view of assisting Mrs. Pritchard at her benefit; and the desire of serving so good an actress is a better excuse for its defects than the few days in which it was written and represented. Notwithstanding the favourable reception it has met with, the author would not have printed it, had not his friend Mr. Hogarth flattered him most agreeably, by thinking the farmer and his family not unworthy of a sketch of his pencil. To him, therefore, this trifle, which he has so much honoured, is inscribed, as a faint testimony of the sincere esteem which the writer bears him, both as a man and an artist."

The original drawing was given to Mr. Garrick, and was in the possession of his widow during her life.

The receipt for "The March to Finchley," which accompanies this plate, has been already described.

TRISTRAM SHANDY.

For this popular work of his friend Lawrence Sterne, Hogarth furnished two frontispieces; one in 1759, for the second volume; the other in 1761, for the fourth.

The first of these is taken from the chapter in which Corporal Trim is represented reading a sermon to Tristram's father, Uncle Toby, and Dr. Slop, the latter of whom is fallen asleep, and who was intended for Dr. John Burton, a physician of great eminence at York, well known as an able and industrious antiquary, and also as a sturdy Jacobite.

The second frontispiece represents the christening, so humorously described in the fourteenth chapter of the fourth volume of Tristram Shandy.

FOUR HEADS FROM THE CARTOONS.

These heads were copied from the cartoons at Hampton Court; and Mr. Walpole, speaking of Sir James Thornhill's attention to these celebrated pictures, has the following remark: "He made copious studies of the heads, hands, and feet, and intended to publish an exact account of the whole for the use of students; but his work never appeared."

As this plate was found among others engraved by Hogarth, it might probably have been one of his early performances. His widow, in 1781, directed a few impressions to be taken from it; which were sold in Leicester Square.

THE SHRIMP-GIRL.

In this portrait from the life, first published in 1782, from the original sketch in oil, are united the talents of Hogarth and Bartolozzi; but the plate, which is executed in the dotted manner then so much in fashion, should have been etched, or engraved, like those excellent performances by Bartolozzi after the drawings of Guercino; as spirit, rather than delicacy, is the characteristic of our artist's shrimp-girl.

LORD HOLLAND.

This is a serious portrait, from a drawing by Hogarth in 1757, of that celebrated nobleman, whom he afterwards introduced in the second plate of "The Times," as the powerful antagonist of Lord Bute.

The public life of this great statesman is too well known to need recital here. Let it suffice to say, that in 1756 he resigned the office of Secretary at War to Mr. Pitt; and in the following year was appointed Paymaster of the Forces, which he retained until the commencement of the reign of King George III. May 6, 1762, his lady was created Baroness Holland; and April 16, 1763, he himself was advanced to a peerage, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley, Wilts. In the latter part of his life he amused himself by building, at a vast expense, a fantastic villa at Kingsgate, and died July 1, 1774, in his 69th year.

EARL OF CHARLEMONT.

James Caulfield, son of James Viscount Charlemont, was born August 18, 1728; succeeded to his hereditary honours, April 21, 1734; and in December 1782, was raised to an earldom. He was F.R.S., F.S.A., and LL.D.; and died August 4, 1799, aged 70.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

This fine print exhibits an inside view of the House of Commons, from an original painting taken in 1726 or 1727, and now in the possession of the Earl of Onslow.

The prominent portraits are those of the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, the then Speaker; Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Sidney Godolphin, Esq., Father of the House; Colonel Onslow; Sir James Thornhill; Sir Joseph Jekyll; Edward Stables, Esq., Clerk of the House; Mr. Askew, Clerk-Assistant, and several others in the background.

DEBATES ON PALMISTRY.

The figures employed in the study of palmistry seem to have been designed for physicians and surgeons of an hospital, who are debating on the most commodious method of receiving a fee, inattentive to the complaints of a lame female who solicits assistance. A spectre, resembling the royal Dane, comes out behind, perhaps to intimate that physic and poison will occasionally produce similar effects. A glass-case containing skeletons is open; a crocodile hangs overhead; and an owl, emblematic of this sapient consistory, is perched on a high stand.

Mr. Steevens conjectured that this might have been a repented effort of hasty spleen against the officers of St. Bartholomew's, who might not have treated some recommendation of a patient from our artist with all the respect and attention to which he thought it was entitled: but this is mere supposition.

THE STAYMAKER.

The humour in this print is not very striking. The male staymaker seems to be taking professional liberties with a female in the very room where her husband sits, who is playing with one of his children presented to him by a nurse, perhaps with a view to call off his attention from what is going forward. The hag shows her pretended love for the infant by the mode in which she is kissing him. A maidservant holds a looking-glass for the lady, and peeps significantly at the operator from behind it. A boy with a cockade on, and a little sword by his side, appears to observe the familiarities already mentioned, and is strutting up fiercely towards the staymaker, while a girl is spilling some liquor in his hat.

CHARITY IN THE CELLAR.

The original picture from which this print was engraved, was painted for the late Lord Boyne. It represents a convivial party assembled in a cellar over a hogshead of claret, who, it is said, resolved not to separate till they had drunk all the wine it contained. Whether such a circumstance really gave rise to the picture or not, it is unnecessary to inquire. It is too well known that the habit of drinking to excess, among all classes of society, existed at the time of Hogarth to such a degree as to draw the particular attention of this distinguished painter to it; and it is not perhaps too much to say, that the most distinguished preachers, or most able moral writers, have not done more to drive this odious and degrading vice from society than has been effected by the valuable pencil of Hogarth. The individuals here represented were members of a society well known by the name of the "Hell-fire Club." In the centre is the portrait of Sir Philip Hoby, seated on the cask. Behind him, with his hand held up, is that of Mr. De Grey, and below him is the portrait of Lord J. Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Opposite to him Lord Sandwich is represented kneeling down to draw in the intoxicating draught; and behind him (extended on a form) is also Lord Galway. The grouping of the four centre figures is an ingenious imitation of a statue of Charity which is seen in the cellar. The position of the bottles brings the comparison still nearer, and is one of those little incidents for which Hogarth was so particularly distinguished from all other painters, in omitting nothing that might carry out his intention and make himself understood.

The devotedness of this group to the object for which they are assembled is extremely well portrayed. The positions of the figures are easy, and the principle of observing the pyramidal form (so often insisted upon as necessary to beauty in the grouping of figures) is here strikingly exemplified. It is impossible to show a more unconquerable love for the intoxicating draught than is expressed in the portrait of Lord Galway. Unable to stand, he has placed himself on his back in such a manner that the liquor from the cask above him is flowing into his mouth; and he has perhaps been represented by Hogarth as thus persevering in the fatal habit, in order to show the excess to which it was then carried, and is a forcible point in the painter's composition.

The picture is now in the possession of the present Lord Boyne, and the print from it, which we have added to our present edition, is not to be found in any other of the collected works of Hogarth.

SIX TICKETS.

The several designs collected in this plate require no particular description. They are given as specimens of the facility with which Hogarth descended to minor subjects, at the same time embellishing them with strokes of his peculiar vein of pleasantry and humour; and each of them sufficiently evinces the purpose it was intended to recommend.

1. For the Mock Doctor. 2. For Pasquin. 3. For the Beggars' Opera. 4. For Joe Miller. 5. Thomas Figg, the noted prize-fighter. 6. The Ram Inn at Cirencester.

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