BY MR. COOKE, AND MR. DAVENPORT, WITH DESCRIPTIONS, 7 IN WHICH ARE POINTED OUT MANY BEAUTIES THAT HAVE HITHERTO ESCAPED NOTICE, WITH A COMMENT ON THEIR MORAL TENDENCY, BY THE REV. JOHN TRUSLER. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. SHARPE, KING-STREET, COVENT-GARDEN; R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW; THE LIFE OF HOGARTH. WILLIAM HOGARTH is said to have been the descendant of a family originally from Kirby Thore, in Westmorland. His grandfather was a plain yeoman, who possessed a small tenement in the vale of Bampton, a village about fifteen miles north of Kendal, in that county; and had three sons. The eldest assisted his father in farming; and succeeded to his little freehold. The second settled in Troutbeck, a village eight miles north west of Kendal, and was remarkable for his talent at provincial poetry. Richard Hogarth, the third son, who was educated at St. Bee's, and had kept a school in the same county, appears to have been a man of some learning. He came early to London, where he resumed his original occupation of a School Master in Ship Court in the Old Bailey, and was occasionally employed as a corrector of the press. Mr. Richard Hogarth married in London; and our artist, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, are believed to have been the only product of the marriage. William Hogarth was born November 10, baptised November 28, 1697, in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London; to which parish, it is said in the Biographia Britannica, he was afterwards a benefactor. The school of Hogarth's father, in 1712, was in the parish of St. Martin, Ludgate. In the register of that parish, therefore, the date of his death, it was natural to suppose, might be found; but that register has been searched to no purpose. Hogarth seems to have received no other education than that of a mechanic, and his outset in life was unpropitious. Young Hogarth was bound apprentice to a silversmith (whose name was Gamble) of some eminence; by whom he was confined to that branch of the trade, which consists in engraving arms and cyphers upon the plate. While thus employed, he gradually acquired some knowledge of drawing; and, before his apprenticeship expired, he exhibited some talent for caricature. A "He THE LIFE OF HOGARTH. felt the impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting, though little apprised at that time of the mode Nature had intended he should pursue." The following circumstance gave the first indication of the talents with which Hogarth afterwards proved himself to be so liberally endowed. During his apprenticeship, he set out one Sunday, with two or three companions, on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, they went into a public-house; where they had not long been, before a quarrel arose between some persons in the same room. One of the disputants struck the other on the head with a quart pot, and cut him very much. The blood running down the man's face, together with his agony from the wound (which had distorted his features into a most hideous grin), presented Hogarth with too laughable a subject to be overlooked. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one of the most ludicrous figures that ever was seen. What made this piece the more valuable, was, that it exhibited an exact likeness of the man, with a portrait of his antagonist, and the figures, in caricature, of the principal persons gathered round him. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he entered into the academy in St. Martin's Lane, and studied drawing from the life: but in this his proficiency was inconsiderable ; nor would he ever have surpassed mediocrity as a painter, if he had not penetrated through external form to character and manners. "It was character, passions, the soul, that his genius was given him to copy." The engraving of arms and shop-bills seems to have been his first employment by which to obtain a decent livelihood. He was, however, soon engaged in decorating books, and furnished sets of plates for several publications of the time. An edition of Hudibras afforded him the first subject suited to his genius: yet he felt so much the shackles of other men's ideas, that he was less successful in this task than might have been expected. In the mean time, he had acquired the use of the brush, as well as of the and graver; and, possessing a singular facility in seizing a likeness, he acquired considerable employment as a portrait-painter. Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that he commenced painter of small conversation pieces, from twelve to fifteen inches in height; the novelty of which caused them to succeed for a few years. One of the earliest productions of this kind, which distinguished him as a 'painter, is supposed to have been a representation of Wanstead Assembly; the figures in it were drawn from the life, and without burlesque. The faces were said to bear great likenesses pen THE LIFE OF HOGARTH. to the persons so drawn, and to be rather better coloured than some of his more finished performances. Grace, however, was no attribute of his pencil; and he was more disposed to aggravate, than to soften the harsh touches of nature. A curious anecdote is recorded of our artist during the early part of his practice as a portrait-painter. A nobleman, who was uncommonly ugly and deformed, sat for his picture, which was executed in his happiest manner, and with singularly rigid fidelity. The peer, disgusted at this counterpart of his dear self, was not disposed very readily to pay for a reflector that would only insult him with his deformities. After some time had elapsed, and numerous unsuccessful applications had been made for payment, the painter resorted to an expedient, which he knew must alarm the nobleman's pride. He sent him the following card:-" Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's pressing necessities for the money. If, therefore, his lordship does not send for it in three days, it will be disposed of, with the addition of a tail and some other appendages, to Mr. Hare, the famous wild beast man; Mr. H. having given that gentleman a conditional promise on his lordship's refusal." This intimation had its desired effect; the picture was paid for, and committed to the flames. Hogarth's talents, however, for original comic design, gradually unfolded themselves, and various public occasions produced displays of his ludicrous powers. In the year 1730, he clandestinely married the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the painter, who was not easily reconciled to her union with an obscure artist, as Hogarth then comparatively was. Shortly after, he commenced his first great series of moral paintings, "The Harlot's Progress:" some of these were, at Lady Thornhill's suggestion, designedly placed by Mrs. Hogarth in her father's way, in order to reconcile him to her marriage. Being informed by whom they were executed, Sir James observed, "The man who can produce such representations as these, can also maintain a wife without a portion." He soon after, however, relented, and became generous to the young couple, with whom he lived in great harmony until his death, which took place in 1733. In 1733 his genius became conspicuously known. The third scene of the the Harlot's Progress introduced him to the notice of the great: at a |