observing to him that the boy was crying with no apparent
cause of provocation, Hogarth put in the little girl
tantalizing him. But--happy he! who has the print of the
'Evening' _without_ the little girl: fifteen golden guineas
(rare things now to meet with!) ought not to induce him to
part with it. Of the copper-plate portraits by Hogarth, the
original of '_Sarah Malcolm, executed_ 1732,' is among the
very rarest; a copy of this selling for 7_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._
at Barnard's sale. The reader has only to procure that most
interesting of all illustrative works, _Hogarth Illustrated
by John Ireland_, 1793, (2d edit.) 3 vols., 8vo.; and, for a
comparatively trifling sum, he may be initiated into all the
mysteries of Hogarthian _virtu_. The late Right Hon. W.
Wyndham's collection of Hogarth's prints, bequeathed to him
by Mr. George Steevens, was _bought in_ for little more than
300 guineas.]

LIS. I will stick to Rembrandt and leave Hogarth at rest. But surely,
this rage for _Portrait Collecting_ cannot be of long duration. It
seems too preposterous for men of sober sense and matured judgment to
yield to.

LYSAND. So think _you_--who are no Collector! But had you accompanied
me to Mr. Christie's on Friday[440] last, you would have had
convincing evidence to the contrary. A little folio volume, filled
with one hundred and fifty-two prints, produced--

[Footnote 440: If the reader casts his eye upon pages 505-6
he will find that the ardour of print and portrait
collecting has not abated since the time of Sir W. Musgrave.
As a corroboration of the truth of Lysander's remark, I
subjoin a specimen (being only four articles) of the present
rage for 'curious and rare' productions of the _burin_--as
the aforesaid Grangerite (p. 507) terms it.

NO. 54. The Right Honourable and truly generous Henry Veere,
Earl of Oxford, Viscount Bulbeck, &c. Lord High Chamberlain
of England. J. Payne sculp. With a large hat and feather,
small, in a border with many figures. Will. Passo, sculp.
Tho. Jenner exc. On distinct plates. _The most brilliant
impression of a print of the greatest rarity._ L30 9_s._
0_d._

63. Generall (Edward) Cecyll son to the Right Honourable the
Earle of Exeter, &c. In an oval; in armour. Simmon Passaes,
sculp. Anno 1618. Sould in Pope's Head Alley, also