ing the
hungry, and dispensing blessings all around; but he came on a white
horse, and who were his attendants?--Famine and War and Pestilence."

The poets have always been partial to Highgate. William and Mary Howitt
live there at this day. Florence Nightingale has also there taken up her
abode. The German religious reformer, Ronge, lives at the foot of
Highgate Hill. Nicholas Rowe was educated there. It was in one of the
lanes leading to Highgate that Coleridge met Keats and Hunt. "There is
death in the hand," said he to Hunt, as he shook hands with the author of
Endymion. Painters and artists have also been partial to Highgate.
George Morland would stay at the Bull, an inn still existing, weeks at a
time, and, we may be sure, ran up very handsome scores. An incident that
occurred to Hogarth while at Highgate made an artist of him. The tale is
thus told by Walpole--"During his apprenticeship he set out one Sunday
with two or three companions on an excursion to Highgate. The weather
being very hot, they went into a public-house, where they had not been
long before a quarrel arose between some persons in the same room; one of
the disputants struck the other on the head with a quart pot and cut him
very much; the blood running down the man's face, together with the agony
of the wound, which had distorted the features into a most hideous grin,
presented Hogarth, who showed himself thus early apprised of the mode
nature had intended he should pursue, with a subject too laughable to be
overlooked. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one of the
most ludicrous figures that was ever seen. What rendered the piece the
more valuable was, that it exhibited an exact likeness of the man, with
the portrait of his antagonist, and the figures in caricature of the
principal persons gathered around him." One of the names associated with
Highgate I find to be that of Hogarth's enemy, Wilkes, patriot or
demagogue. In his Life I read, "Mr. Wilkes was of the Established
Church, but after he was married he often went to Meeting. He lived in a
splendid style, and kept a very elegant and sumptuous table for his
friends. Among the numerous persons who visited this family were Mr.
Mead, an eminent drysalter on London Bridge, with his wife and daughter,
who, being also Dissenters, frequently went to the Meeting-house in
Southwood Lane, Highgate, in Mr. Wilkes's coach, which was always drawn
by six horses, such was his l