[1] "Mr. Garrick had several of Hogarth's paintings; and the latter designed for him, as president of the Shakespeare club, a mahogany chair richly carved, on the back of which hangs a medal of the poet carved by Hogarth out of the mulberry-tree planted at Stratford by Shakespeare." Anecdotes of Painting, vol. IV. p. 180. edit. 8vo, 1782.
3. A stand of various weapons, bag-pipes, &c. and a pair of scissars cutting out the arms of Scotland. A subscription-ticket for the March to Finchley; of which the original price was only 7 s. 6 d. It was to be raised to 10 s. 6 d. on closing the subscription. The additional three shillings afforded the subscriber a chance for the original picture.
1747.
1. Stage-coach. An election procession in the yard. Designed and engraved by William Hogarth. In this plate there is a variation. The early impressions have a flag behind the wheel of the coach, inscribed no old baby, which was the cry used by the opponents of the honourable John Child Tylney (then Viscount Castlemain and now Earl Tylney[1]) when he stood member for the county of Essex, against Sir Robert Abdy and Mr. Bramston. The figure still carries a horn-book, and a rattle in its hands. At the election, a man was placed on a bulk with an infant in his arms, and exclaimed, as he whipt the child, "What, you little Child, must you be a member?" The family name was changed from Child to Tylney by an act of parliament in 1735. In this disputed election, it appeared from the register-book of the parish where Lord Castlemain was born, that he was but 20 years of age. Some pains have been taken to ascertain the particular inn-yard in which the scene is laid, but without success, so many of the publick-houses between Whitechapel and Chelmsford in Essex having been altered, or totally rebuilt.
[1] Since dead.—Inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinædos.
2. Industry and Idleness, in twelve plates.[1] Mr. Walpole observes, that "they have more merit in the intention than execution." At first they were printed off on very thin paper. Plate V. The scene is Cuckold's Point, below London Bridge. Plate VI. In a few first impressions, "Goodchild and West" is written under the sign, instead of "West and Goodchild." Hogarth had inadvertently placed the name of the junior partner first. Some mercantile friend, however, pointing out the mistake, when as yet only a few copies were taken off, our artist corrected it, to avoid the criticisms of Cheapside and Cornhill. In this plate is a figure of Philip in the Tub, a well-known beggar and cripple, who was a constant epithalamist at weddings in London, and had visited Ireland and The Seven Provinces. The French clergyman in Plate VIII. was designed for Mr. Platell, curate of Barnet. Plate XI. The scene is in a cellar of a noted house that went by the name of "The Blood Bowl House," from the various scenes of blood that were there almost daily exhibited, and where there seldom passed a month without the commission of a murder. Blood Bowl-alley is down by the fishmonger's, near Water-lane, Fleet-street; and I am assured, that the house and event, that gave rise to the name, were there. In Plate XI. is Tiddy Doll, the well-known vender of gingerbread. Just behind him, in a cart, to bring away the body of the criminal, is his mother. Though her face is concealed, she is distinguished by her excess of sorrow, and the black hood she has worn throughout the foregoing representations of her. Plate XII. Frederick Prince of Wales, and the Princess of Wales, in the balcony. The standards of the Blacksmiths' and Stationers' Companies appear in the procession. The flag, at the corner of one of the stands, belongs to the Pinners and Needlers. The hint for this series of prints was evidently taken from the old comedy of Eastward-hoe, by Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, reprinted in Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays. "The scenes of Bedlam and the gaming-house," as Mr. Walpole well observes, "are inimitable representations of our serious follies, or unavoidable woes; and the concern shown by the lord-mayor, when the companion of his childhood is brought before him as a criminal, is a touching picture, and big with humane admonition and reflection." The late comedian Mr. James Love (otherwise Dance, and brother to the painter of that name) dramatized this series of prints; and Mr. King, now deputy-manager of Drury-lane, performed the character of the Good 'Prentice.
These Plates were retouched by Hogarth; but, as usual, whatever they gained in respect to force, they lost in the article of clearness. They offer no variations, except such as are occasioned by his having thrown a few of the figures into shade, that others might appear more prominent. Dr. Ducarel informed me, that the passages of Scripture applicable to the different scenes were selected for Mr. Hogarth, by his friend the Rev. Mr. Arnold King.
In the following year was published, price one shilling (being an explanation of the moral of twelve celebrated prints lately published, and designed by the ingenious Mr. Hogarth), "The Effects of Industry and Idleness, illustrated in the Life, Adventures, and various Fortunes of Two Fellow 'Prentices of the City of London: shewing the different Paths, as well as Rewards of Virtue and Vice; how the good and virtuous 'Prentice, by gradual Steps of Industry, rose to the highest Pitch of Grandeur; and how, by contrary Pursuits, his Fellow-'Prentice, by Laziness and Wickedness, came to die an ignominious Death at the Gallows. ¶ This little book ought to be read by every 'Prentice in England, to imprint in their hearts these two different examples, the contrary effects each will produce on their young minds being of more worth than a hundred times the price, i. e. an abhorrence of the vice and wickedness they perceive in the one boy, and, on the contrary, an endeavour after an imitation of the actions of the other. And is a more proper present to be given to the Chamber of London, at the binding and enrolling an apprentice, than any other book whatever. Printed by Charles Corbett, at Addison's Head in Fleet street."