Page images
PDF
EPUB

the other violently on the head with a quart pot : the blood ran profusely down the face of the wounded man, while the agony of the blow distorted his features into a hideous grin, and presented to Hogarth the mode, which nature had intended he should pursue. Instantly he pulled out his pencil, and could not resist the propensity he felt to make on the spot one of the most laughable figures that can be imagined. What made the whole valuable was, that his sketch exhibited in a few minutes the exact likeness of the wounded man, as well as the portrait of his antagonist, and the figures around him, in caricature.

He proceeded afterwards to give various proofs of great natural talents, and in immense variety. A multitude of family pictures, painted or engraved by him, are still existing. His prices for many years were very low.

He married in 1730 a young lady of beauty and merit, only eighteen years of age; the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill. This union was a stolen one, without the approbation of Sir James, who objected to the match in consequence of the youth of his daughter, and the very slender finances of her husband, an obscure artist, and was not easily reconciled to the marriage. But Lady Thornhill was friendly to the young couple.

Mr. Hogarth had begun to paint his Harlot's Progress; Lady Thornhill advised Mrs. Hogarth to convey some of the scenes in the way of Sir James and one morning early, the young lady

He en

66

placed them in the library of her father. tered, and on seeing them was astonished. He enquired how they came there, and who was the painter? On being told, he said aloud, " Very well, very well indeed; the man who can furnish such paintings may afford to maintain a wife without a portion." But he was soon after quite reconciled, and generous to the young couple.

Mr. Hogarth proceeded to paint his Marriage d-la-mode, his Rake's Progress, &c. He went to France after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; and after his return he purchased a small house at Chiswick, for the summer season; but his chief residence was in his own house in Leicester-square.

In 1753 Mr. Hogarth appeared to the world as an author. He published a quarto volume, entitled, The Analysis of Beauty, written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of Taste, which was printed at Berlin, Leghorn, &c. Like many men of genius, he was very absent. One of his intimate friends told the following anecdote of him. He had got a new carriage, and went to visit his friend the Lord Mayor in it. He went there when the weather was fine, but business detained him, and a violent shower of rain came on. He was let out at a different door of the Mansion-house, from that at which he had entered; but seeing the rain, he called out for a hackney coach: not one was to be seen; so our artist walked home in the midst of heavy rain, to his house in Leicester square,

having totally forgotten his new carriage, which he had left at the Mansion-house.

In 1762 Mr. Hogarth published his print of The Times. Mr. Garrick was his very valued and dear friend, and deeply lamented the death of Mr. Hogarth. He died in October 1764, at his house in Leicester-square. He had received a most agreeable letter from his American friend, Dr. Franklin, and was about to answer it, when he was suddenly seized with a fit of fainting, and died in two hours. Mr. Garrick attended his funeral, with very many friends, and wrote an epitaph for his monument in Chiswick Church-yard.

MR. HOWARD

THE PHILANTHROPIST.

THIS distinguished and benevolent traveller was descended from the noble family of the Howards. He was born in the parish of Hackney, in the county of Middlesex. His worthy father had acquired a large fortune by trade, but was not expensive in his habits of life. He was remarkably pious, particularly by constant observance of the Sabbath, which nothing could lead him to omit; he was also constant in the duty of family prayer, by which his son gained that heartfelt piety, which formed always a leading feature of his character.

Young Howard was intended for commercial life; but aware of the ample fortune his father had acquired, the young man kept a couple of good horses, and rode with his servant into the country; and with Hervey's Meditations, and serious books, by which, and general literature, he cultivated good principles, and in particular an early knowledge of the Bible. His health was delicate; but by much riding on horseback he grew up to be more robust, and free from weakness. His father died in 1742, leaving a large fortune to his only son, and one daughter. A return of nervous fever made Mr.

Howard resolve to go often to Bristol hot wells, from which he received great advantage.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1756. In the same year he went to Portugal to see the ruins of Lisbon, after the awful earthquake which happened the year before. But the ship in which Mr. Howard sailed was taken by the French, and carried into Brest. Here was a new and sad scene of life to Mr. Howard, who had enjoyed all the ease of affluence. He was not only witness of the misery of a prison, but he experienced in his own person all the painful feelings, the cold, the hunger, the shocking beds, the offensive air, the bad food and nauseous drink, the wretched appearance of all surrounding objects who groaned in painful agonies. All these, so new to him who had never before beheld real wretchedness, deeply affected him. He also recollected the words of our Divine Saviour, read to him from his early youth by his father, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink, I was naked and ye clothed me not, I was sick and in prison and ye visited me not.' The kind Mr. Howard wrote letters to his friends in London, and soon was liberated from the prison, and allowed to board and lodge in the town on his parole. He was soon supplied with clothes, a decent bed, &c. at the small town of Corbaix, near Brest. He was deeply impressed with gratitude to God, and anxious sympathy for the miserable prisoners he had left at

Matt. xxv. 42, 43.

« PreviousContinue »