[26] He was called on this occasion, in the Craftsman, "Mr. Hogarth, an ingenious designer and engraver."
[27] "Pope published in 1731 a poem called False Taste, in which he very particularly and severely criticises the house, the furniture, the gardens, and the entertainments of Timon, a man of great wealth and little taste. By Timon he was universally supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is addressed, was privately said to mean the Duke of Chandos; a man perhaps too much delighted with pomp and shew, but of a temper kind and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice of the publick in his favour. A violent outcry was therefore raised against the ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the kindness of his invitation. The receipt of the thousand pounds Pope publickly denied; but from the reproach which the attack on a character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of escaping. The name of Cleland was employed in an apology, by which no man was satisfied; and he was at last reduced to shelter his temerity behind dissimulation, and endeavour to make that disbelieved which he never had confidence openly to deny. He wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke, which was answered with great magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his excuse without believing his professions. He said, that to have ridiculed his taste, or his buildings, had been an indifferent action in another man; but that in Pope, after the reciprocal kindness that had been exchanged between them, it had been less easily excused." Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Pope.
[28] That Sir John Gonson took a very active part against the Ladies of Pleasure, is recorded by more than one of their votaries: In "A View of the Town, 1735," by Mr. T. Gilbert, a fellow of Peter House Cambridge, and an intimate companion of Loveling,[A] I meet with these lines:
"Though laws severe to punish guilt were made,
What honest man is of these laws afraid?
All felons against judges will exclaim,
As harlots startle at a Gonson's name."
The magistrate entering with his myrmidons was designed as the representative of this gentleman, whose vigilance on like occasions is recorded in the following elegant Sapphic Ode, by Mr. Loveling. This gentleman was educated at Winchester-school, became a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, was ordained deacon, lived gaily, and died young. His style, however, appears to have been formed on a general acquaintance with the language of Roman poetry; nor do any of his effusions betray that poverty of expression so conspicuous in the poems of Nicholas Hardinge, esq. who writes as if Horace was the only classic author he had ever read.
Ad Johannem Gonsonum, Equitem.
Pellicum, Gonsone, animosus hostis,
Per minus castas Druriæ tabernas
Lenis incedens, abeas Diones
Æquus alumnis!
Nuper (ah dictu miserum!) Olivera
Flevit ereptas viduata mœchas,
Quas tuum vidit genibus minores
Ante tribunal.
Dure, cur tantâ in Veneris ministras
Æstuas irâ? posito furore
Huc ades, multà & prece te vocantem
Gratior audi!
Nonne sat mœchas malè feriatas
Urget infestis fera sors procellis?
Adderis quid tu ulterior puellis
Causa doloris?
Incolunt, eheu! thalamos supernos,
Nota quæ sedes fuerat Poetis;
Nec domum argento gravis, ut solebat,
Dextra revertit.
Nympha quæ nuper nituit theatro,
Nunc stat obscuro misera angiportu,
Supplici vellens tunicam rogatque
Voce Lyæum.
Te voco rebus Druriæ mentis;
Voci communi Britonum Juventus
Te vocat, nunc ô! dare te benignum
Incipe votis.
Singulum tunc dona feret lupanar:
Liberum mittet Rosa Lusitanum,
Gallici Haywarda et generosa mittet
Munera Bacchi.
Sive te forsan moveat libido,
Aridis pellex requiescet ulnis,
Callida effœtas renovare lento
Verbere vires.
The same poet, speaking of the exhilarating effects of Gin, which had just been an object of Parliamentary notice, has the following stanza:
Utilis mœchae fuit & Poetæ;
Sprevit hinc Vates Dolopum catervas,
Mœcha Gonsonum tetricâ minantem
Fronte laborem.
Thus, between the poet and the painter, the fame of our harlot-hunting Justice is preserved. But as a slave anciently rode in the same chariot with the conqueror, the memory of a celebrated street-robber and highwayman will descend with that of the magistrate to posterity, James Dalton's wig-box being placed on the tester of the Harlot's bed. I learn from the Grubstreet Journal, that he was executed on the 12th of May, 1730. Sir John Gonson died January 9, 1765. He was remarkable for the charges which he used to deliver to the grand juries, which are said to have been written by Orator Henley. The following puffs, or sneers, concerning them, are found in the first number of the Grubstreet Journal, dated January 8, 1730. "Yesterday began the General Quarter Sessions, &c. when Sir John Gonson, being in the chair, gave a most incomparable, learned, and fine charge to the Grand Jury." Daily Post.
"The Morning Post calls Sir John's charge excellent, learned and loyal. The Evening Post calls it an excellent lecture and useful charge."