[143] The Prince of Wales was born on the 12th of August 1762. Just after her Majesty was safely in her bed, the waggons with the treasure of the Hermione entered Saint James's Street, on which the king and the nobility went to the window over the palace gate to see them, and joined their acclamations on two such joyful occasions. From hence the procession, consisting of twenty waggons, etc., proceeded to the tower.—Annual Register, 1762, Art. August.
[144] In the London Magazine for September 1762, I find the following explanation:—
"The subject of this print is, as its title expresses it, 'The Times.' The first object is a quarter of the globe on fire, supposed to be Europe; and France, Germany, and Spain, denoted by their respective arms, are represented in flames, which appear to be extending themselves to Great Britain itself. And this desolation is continued and increased by Mr. P——, who is represented by the figure of Henry VIII., with a pair of bellows blowing up those flames which others are endeavouring to extinguish. He is mounted on the stilts of the populace. There is a Cheshire cheese hanging between his legs, and round the same '£3000 per annum.' The manager of the engine-pipe is L—— B——, who is assisted in working the engine by sailors, English soldiers, and Highlanders; but their good offices are impeded by a man with a wheel-barrow, overladen with Monitors and North Britons, brought to be thrown in to keep up the flame. The respectable body depictured under Mr. P——, are the m—— of London, who are worshipping the idol they had formerly set up; whilst a German prince, who alone is sure to profit by the war, is amusing himself with a violin among his miserable countrymen. It is sufficiently apparent who is meant by the fine gentleman at the dining-room window of the Temple Coffeehouse, who is squirting at the director of the engine-pipe, whilst his garretteers are engaged in the same employment. The picture of the Indian alludes to the advocates for the retaining our West India conquests, which, they say, will only increase excess and debauchery; and the breaking down the Newcastle Arms, and the drawing up the patriotic ones, refer to the resignation of a noble Duke, and the appointment of a successor. The Dutchman smoking his pipe, with a fox peeping out beneath him, the emblem of cunning, waiting the issue; the waggon with the treasures of the Hermione; the unnecessary marching of the militia, signified by the Norfolk jig; the dove with the olive branch; and the miseries of war, are obvious, and need no explication."
In a newspaper of the day is the following whimsical description of the characters the writer chooses to say were really intended:—
"The principal figure, in the character of Henry VIII., appears to be not Mr. P——, but another person, whose power is signified by his bulk of carcase, treading on Mr. P——, represented by 3000. The bellows may signify his well-meant though ineffectual endeavours to extinguish the fire by wind, which, though it will put out a small flame, will cherish a large one. The guider of the engine-pipe I should think can only mean his M——, who unweariedly tries, by a more proper method, to stop the flames of war, in which he is assisted by all his good subjects both by sea and land, notwithstanding any interruption from Auditors or Britons, Monitors or North Britons. The respectable body at the bottom can never mean the magistrates of London: Mr. H—— has more sense than to abuse so respectable a body. Much less can it mean the judges. I think it may as likely be the Court of Session in Scotland, either in the attitude of adoration, or with outspread arms, intending to catch their patron should his stilts give way. The Frenchman may very well sit at his ease among his miserable countrywomen, as he is not unacquainted that France has always gained by negotiating what she lost in fighting. The fine gentleman at the window, with his garretteers, and the barrow of periodical papers, refers to the present contending parties of every denomination. The breaking of the Newcastle Arms alludes to the resignation of a great personage; and the replacing of them by the sign of the Four Clenched Fists may be thought emblematical of the great economy of his successor. The Norfolk jig signifies in a lively manner the alacrity of all his Majesty's forces during the war; and G. T. (George Townshend) fecit, is an opportune compliment paid to Lord Townshend, who, in conjunction with Mr. Wyndham, published A Plan of Discipline for the use of the Norfolk Militia, quarto, and had been the greatest advocate for the establishment of our present militia. The picture of the Indian alive from America, is a satire on our late uncivilised behaviour to the three chiefs of the Cherokee nation who were lately in this kingdom, and the bags of money set this in a still clearer point of view, signifying the sums gained by showing them at our public gardens. The sly Dutchman with his pipe seems pleased with the combustion, from which he thinks he shall be a gainer; and the Duke of Nivernois, under the figure of a dove, is coming from France to give a cessation of hostilities to Europe."
[145] In the first impressions, considering Mr. Pitt as a tyrant, he introduced him in the character of Henry VIII.; this was afterwards properly altered.
[146] "There are strong prejudices in favour of straight lines, as constituting true beauty in the human form, where they never should appear. A middling connoisseur thinks no profile has beauty without a very straight nose; and if the forehead be continued straight with it, he thinks it is still more sublime. The common notion that a person should be straight as an arrow, and perfectly erect, is of this kind. If a dancing-master were to see his scholar in the easy and gracefully turned attitude of the Antinous, he would cry shame on him, and tell him he looked as crooked as a ram's horn, and bid him hold up his head as he himself did."—Preface to the Analysis of Beauty, p. 8.
[147] Of Ramsay's manner, Churchill had an opinion similar to Hogarth's. Speaking of Scotland, he says,
"From thence the Ramsays, men of 'special note,
Of whom one paints as well as t'other wrote."