DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINTS, Etc.
With talents equally honourable to himself, his country, and the age in which he lived, Hogarth did not leave his widow possessed of much more than arose from the sale of his prints. But during the twenty-five years which she survived him, she had the higher and more exalted gratification of finding that his reputation increased, and his fame acquired stability by time.
In the year 1780, the late Horace Lord Orford published his Anecdotes, in which he has introduced Hogarth's catalogue and character. The volume printed at Strawberry Hill, he (with the preceding part of the work) presented to Mrs. Hogarth. The books were accompanied with the following handsome apology for his strictures on the genius of her husband:[81]—
To Mrs. Hogarth.
"Berkeley Square, October 4, 1780.
"Mr. Walpole begs Mrs. Hogarth's acceptance of the volume that accompanies this letter, and hopes she will be content with his endeavours to do justice to the genius of Mr. Hogarth. If there are some passages less agreeable to her than the rest, Mr. Walpole will regard her disapprobation only as marks of the goodness of her heart, and proofs of her affection to her husband's memory; but she will, he is sure, be so candid as to allow for the duty an historian owes to the public and himself, which obliges him to say what he thinks, and which when he obeys, his praise is corroborated by his censure. The first page of his Preface will more fully make his apology;[82] and his just admiration of Mr. Hogarth, Mr. W. flatters himself, will, notwithstanding his impartiality, still rank him in Mrs. Hogarth's mind as one of her husband's most zealous and sincere friends."
In nine years after the receipt of this letter, Mrs. Hogarth died, bequeathing her property to her relation, Mrs. Mary Lewis of Chiswick, by whose kindness and friendship I am in possession of the manuscripts which form the basis of the foregoing sheets, the following most singular and curious print of "Enthusiasm Delineated," etc. etc. etc.