the ornamental painting at his expense, A. D. 1736." Hogarth soon left this new path, in which Walpole deals harshly with his failure: "the genius that had entered so feelingly into the calamities and crimes of familiar life, deserted him in a walk that called for dignity and grace. The burlesque turn of his mind mixed itself with the most serious subjects. In the Pool of Bethesda, a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man that sought the same celestial remedy." This, though justly thought, Walpole condemns as too ludicrous; but it is rather satirical. The conception of both these works is their chief merit.

Hogarth paid his friend Lambert for painting the landscape of the Good Samaritan, and afterwards cleaned the whole at his own expense.

Two fine drawings for the Bethesda painting exist. One is in black and white chalk, drawn from the life, of the principal female figure in the Pool; upon which S. Ireland notes: "this figure was drawn at St. Martin's-lane, and is said to have represented Nell Robinson, a celebrated courtezan:" it was given in 1794 by Mr. Cotton to Ireland, and is now in the Royal collection. The second drawing is in chalk, very fine, probably the study for the beggar in the Pool; it passed into Mr. John Sheepshanks's collection.

HOGARTH AN ANATOMICAL DRAUGHTSMAN.

It is not generally known that in early life Hogarth attempted to paint morbid anatomy: it was at the suggestion of Dr. Cæsar Hawkins who directed his attention to it as a field of labour not occupied; Hogarth at that time being a beginner the Doctor patronized him; and two pictures painted by Hogarth for him (of diseased viscera) were bequeathed with other pictures by the widow of the doctor, to the Royal College of Surgeons, where they are still preserved.

"THE STROLLING ACTRESSES."

This picture is one of the most imaginative and amusing of Hogarth's works. It is a huge barn fitted up as a theatre, with a company of performers preparing for the "Devil to Pay in Heaven," a sort of burlesque of a religious mystery. The principal dramatis personæ, Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Apollo, Flora, Night, Syren, Aurora, and Cupid, are accompanied by a ghost, two eagles, two dragons, two kittens, and an aged

monkey. Juno is rehearsing her part on an old wheelbarrow which serves occasionally for a triumphal car; Night, in a starry robe, is mending her stocking; the Star of Evening is a scoured tin tart-mould. A veteran, one-eyed damsel represents the Tragic Muse, and is cutting a cat's tail for blood to heighten the mimic scene. Two little devils with budding horns, are struggling for a pot of ale. In the centre of the design Diana is stripped to her chemise, and having just caught the inspiration of her part, is rehearsing, heedless of dressing; she is young, blooming, and beautiful. Flora is making her toilet before a broken looking-glass; she smooths her hair with a piece of tallow candle, and holds the dredger ready. Apollo and Cupid are trying to bring down a pair of stockings, hung out on a cloud to dry; but the wings of the God of Love fail, and he is compelled to mount by a ladder. Aurora sits on the ground; the Syren is offering Ganymede a glass of gin; and the woman who personates the Bird of Jove, is feeding her child; a royal crown holds the papsaucepan, and the child screams at the enormous beak of the eagle. In a corner a monkey in a long cloak, a bag wig, and solitaire, is moistening the plumed helmet of Alexander the Great. Two kittens are playing with a lyre and an imperial orb; and two judges' wigs and an empty noose are in suggestive juxta-position. A mitre is filled with tragedies and farces; a hen and chickens are roosting upon a set of unemployed waves; and here are the materials for dramatic thunder. The humour, sarcasms, and absurdities in the picture are endless-even the darkest nook has a meaning; and the oddity of the properties is well indicated by Juno having for her share "thunderbolt, trunk, wheelbarrow, saltbox, rouge, and rolling-pin." It is, indeed, a thoroughly behind the scenes picture. It was sold by Francis Beckford, Esq., for 271. 6s., which price he thought too much, and returned it to the painter, who then sold it to Mr. Wood, of Littleton, for the same price; and it remains in his possession. A print in the first state, extra fine, has been sold for 67. 10s.

THE BEGGARS' OPERA.

The talents of Hogarth did not allow him to let pass the Newgate pastoral of the Beggars' Opera, the greatest theatrical success of his time.

Of this subject, Hogarth painted, at least, two copies. The

original sketch in oil, represents Lucy and Polly interceding with their fathers to save Capt. Macheath: Walker as Macheath; Miss Fenton (afterwards Duchess of Bolton) as Polly; Hippisley as Peachem; Hall as Lockit: on one side, in a box, are Sir Thomas Robinson, very tall and lean, and Sir Robert Fagg, the famous horse-racer. This sketch was given by Hogarth to Horace Walpole, and remained in the Strawberry-hill collection, until the sale in 1842, when it was sold for 55 guineas. Walpole had another picture by Hogarth, of Macheath going to execution. Of this subject, Hogarth painted at least two copies for Rich, of Covent Garden Theatre. It was engraved by Blake, in 1790, with a key-plate of the personages.

Hogarth caricatured the Beggars' Opera in a print representing the actors with the heads of animals, and Apollo and the Muses fast asleep under the stage. In another caricature, Parnassus was turned into a bear-garden; Pegasus was drawing a dust-cart, and the Muses were employed in sifting cinders:

Parnassus now like a bear-garden appears,

And Apollo there plays on his crowd to the bears:
Poor Pegasus draws an old dust-cart along,
And the Muses sift cinders, and hum an old song.
With a fa, la, &c.

"THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY."

In these four prints, Hogarth, says Ireland, "treads poetic ground." It would have been more sensible to say, they present so many scenes of the London street life of the period; just as George Cruikshank and John Leech, in our day, illustrate the humour of their period.

Of Morning the scene is Covent-garden of about a century and a quarter ago. The sun is newly risen, and there is snow on the house-tops; a prim old maiden lady is walking to church, with a half-starved and shivering footboy bearing her prayer-book. She is extraordinarily sour; for she sees, as if she saw them not, two fuddled beaux from Tom King's coffee-house caressing two frail women. A young fruit-girl is warming her hands at the embers of a night-fire on the pavement; while her companion, a beggar-woman, in vain solicits charity from the sour old maiden on her way to church this is the portrait of a lady, who, it is said, was so incensed at the satire, that she struck Hogarth out of her

D

will; she was at first pleased with the strong likeness, till some good-natured friend explained it in a way injurious to the fortune of the artist. At the door of Tom King's coffeehouse* there is a drunken row, in which swords and cudgels are the weapons. There is snow on the ground, and icicles hang from the eaves; but, to suit the season, there is a liquor-shop open; and Dr. Rock is commending to a marvelling audience the miracles wrought by his medicine, which his sign-post shows, he dispenses by letters patent.

Noon is laid, according to Ireland, at the door of a French chapel in Hog-lane, (afterwards Castle-street,) Seven Dials, a part of the town then peopled by French refugees, or their descendants. The congregation are coming out of the chapel; foremost are an affected Frenchwoman, her foppish husband, and a spoiled child; two withered beldames saluting is very ludicrous. St. Giles's clock-dial points to half-past eleven; but at this early hour there was as much good eating as now at six in the evening; and twenty pewter measures on the wall attest the rate of drinking. A servant-girl, bringing a pie from a baker's, is stopped to be kissed by a blackamoor; but the best portion of the picture is a poor boy who in resting a baked pudding on the head of a post, has broken the dish, and let out the contents; he gapes with misery, his eyes run over with tears, and he scratches his head most ludicrously; while a half-famished child is devouring some of the smoking pieces of pudding.

Evening is on the banks of the New River, near Sadler's Wells, and includes the sign of Sir Hugh Myddleton's Head. A husband and wife are walking out to take the air; he is in suspicious position with the head and horns of a neighbouring cow; she is fatigued, portly and proud, and spiteful: there are other pedestrians. A proof of this plate, before the artist's name, or any inscription, and prior to the introduction of the girl, (only three known,) was sold in 1825 for 50l.

Night, the fourth scene, is laid near Charing-cross, on Restoration Day, (May 29,) when the streets were dressed with

*Tom King's Coffee-house was a common shed immediately beneath the portico of St. Paul's church, Covent Garden. and was "well-known to all gentlemen to whom beds are unknown." Fielding says: "What rake is ignorant of King's Coffee-house?" Tom's widow, Mrs. Moll King, continued landlady, and was often fined for keeping a disorderly house. At length she retired from business-and the pillory-to Hampstead, where she lived on her ill-earned gains, paid for a pew in church, was charitable at appointed seasons, and died in peace in 1747.

oak-boughs, especially the signs, and the hats of mirthful spirits. A Freemason, staggering from the tavern, assisted by a waiter, has been set down for Sir Thomas de Veel, a magistrate; a Xantippe showers upon him from her chamber window, an inodorous favour. There is a bonfire, through which the Salisbury Flying Coach, in attempting to pass, is overset and broken-said by Ireland to be a burlesque upon a right honourable peer, who was accustomed to drive three or four of his maid-servants into a deep water, and there leave them in the coach to shift for themselves.

A finished sketch, said to be Hogarth's first thought for Morning, was sold in Yates's sale in 1827, to Mr. Tayleure for 217. The picture was purchased by Sir William Heathcote for 20 guineas; and Night for 271. 6s. Noon was sold for 38l. 17s., and Evening for 391. 18s., to the Duke of Ancaster, and are now possessed by Lord Gwydir: the four were exhibited at the British Gallery in 1814.

HOGARTH EMBELLISHES VAUXHALL GARDENS.

In 1728, Spring Garden, as Vauxhall was then called, was leased to Jonathan Tyers, to whose taste and spirit this old London resort owed much of its celebrity subsequent to the time of Addison and Sir Roger de Coverley. Tyers reopened the Gardens in 1732, with a grand Ridotto al Fresco; he next set up an organ in the orchestra, and in the grounds, in 1738, Roubilliac's statue of Handel, which is now in the committee-room of the Sacred Harmonic Society, at Exeter

Hall.

Hogarth was now rich enough to take summer lodgings at Lambeth-terrace; the house in which he resided is still shown, and a vine pointed out which the painter planted. While living there, he became acquainted with Tyers, of Vauxhall Gardens; and for the season of 1739, Hogarth designed the silver ticket of admission: the obverse bore the number, name of the holder, and date; and the reverse a figure of Euterpe. Hogarth next suggested to Tyers the embellishment of the Gardens with paintings; the principal objects in them having previously consisted of whimsical proofs of skill in mechanics, and model pictures, and arbours covered and paved with tiles. For the pavilions which Tyers had built, Hogarth drew the four parts of the Day, which Hayman copied; Hogarth also painted for the vestibule