It has well stood the “storm and stress” since then, but is now beginning to show signs of the need of another restoration, for, on the east side, over the inscription, the combined armorial bearings of Hogarth and his wife are as nearly as possible obliterated.
The inscriptions are as follows:—
(N. Side.)
| Farewell great Painter of mankind! Who reach’d the noblest point of Art, Whose pictur’d Morals charm the Mind, And through the Eye correct the Heart. If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay; If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear; If neither move thee, turn away, For Hogarth’s honour’d dust lies here. D. Garrick. |
(E. Side.)
Here lieth the body
of William Hogarth, Esqr.,
who died October the 26th 1764
aged 67 years
Mrs. Jane Hogarth
wife of William Hogarth Esqr.
Obit. the 13th of November 1789
Ætat 80 years.
(W. Side.)
Here lieth the Body
of Mrs. Anne Hogarth Sister
to William Hogarth Esqr.
She died August the 13th 1771
aged 70 years
Also the Body of
Mary Lewis Spinster
died 25th March 1808
Aged 88 years.
(S. Side.)
Here lieth the Body
of Dame Judith Thornhill
Relict of Sr James Thornhill Knight
of Thornhill in the County of Dorset
She died November the 12th 1757
aged 84 years.
The lapse of one hundred and thirty years, says Mr. Page, has not served to dim the ardour with which the works of William Hogarth are cherished by the English nation. His “Harlot’s Progress” not only served to reconcile his father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, to the runaway match the plebeian Hogarth had contracted three years before with his daughter, but it is still looked upon as his chef d’œuvre by many eminent critics; and there is nearly always to be seen a crowd round his “Marriage a la Mode” in the National Gallery. The virulent contest with Wilkes and Churchill, with which his last days were embittered, has long ago been forgotten, and the name of William Hogarth still lives, and will be popular for all time through his admired series of paintings and engravings, which are prized and hoarded with an ever-increasing love by their happy possessors.
