[167] In Mr. Churchill's will was the following item:—
"I desire my dear friend John Wilkes, Esq., to collect and publish my works, with the remarks and explanations he has prepared, and any other he thinks proper to make."
Could Mr. Churchill really think it was possible that notes by Mr. Wilkes, or any other man, would justify his malignant attack upon Hogarth?
[168] What a satire upon himself! What an apology for Hogarth's print!
[169] This is a very singular acknowledgment: it is, I believe, the first instance of a person feeling himself flattered at being told that he had murdered an old man.
[170] He frequently engraved a ticket for one series of prints, and presented it with another.
[171] See the engraved title-page to vol. ii.
[172] In the reduced copy I have ventured to abridge this title, though the very ingenious baptisms of sundry modern prints would have given ample countenance to the old inscription. For example: A girl hugging a dog in her arms is, with great attention to analogy, called "Nature;" and a woman with a large mallet in one hand, and a tenpenny nail in the other, "Art."
A female with a consumptive curd-and-whey countenance, that would not have got her a lover even in Otaheite, they have miscalled "Beauty;" and a little gorged misshapen boy, with swollen cheeks, and a bow and arrow, they kindly inform you is "Love."
A farmer's daughter with a basket on her arm, in which are two pigeons quarrelling for a straw, and drawing it different ways, is christened "Conjugal Peace;" and a very picturesque landscape, with a crowd of figures in the background, baptized "Solitude!"