ons under advantageous circumstances. Sir James
acknowledged its merit at once, exclaiming, "Very well! very well! The
man who can make works like this can maintain a wife without a portion;"
and soon after became not only reconciled, but generous to the young
people. Hogarth had tasted the bitterness of labor; he had even worked
for booksellers, and painted portraits!--so that this summer brightness
must have been full of enjoyment. He appreciated it thoroughly, and was
ever the earnest admirer and the ready defender of Sir James Thornhill;
thus the old knight secured a friend in his son; and it was pleasanter
to think of the hours of reconciliation and happiness they might have
passed within the walls of that inclosed garden, beneath the crumbling
trellice, or the shadow of the old mulberry tree, than of the
fortuneless artist wooing the confiding daughter from her home and her
filial duties.

[Illustration: HOGARTH'S PAINTING-ROOM.]

We were invited to inspect Hogarth's painting-room--a mere loft, of most
limited dimensions, over the stable, which the imagination could easily
furnish with the necessary easel, or still less cumbrous graver's
implements. It is situated at the furthest part of the garden from the
house; a small door in the garden-wall leads into a little inclosure,
one side of which is occupied by the stable. The painting-room is over
the stable, and is reached by a stair; it has but one window which looks
towards the road. It must have been sufficiently commodious for
Hogarth's purposes; but possesses not the conveniences of modern
painting-rooms. The house at Chiswick could only have been a place for
recreation and repose, where relaxation was cared for, and where
sketches were prepared to ripen into publication.

There are traditions about Chiswick of Hogarth having, while studying
and taking notes, frequented a little inn by the roadside, and almost
within sight of his dwelling. It has been modernized throughout--and
supplies no subject for the pencil--yet it retains some indications, not
without interest, of a remote date. The Painter must have been familiar
with every class of character; and Chiswick was then enough of a country
village to supply him amply with material. But, although a keen
satirist, it is certain that he had as much tenderness for the lower
orders of creation, as a young loving girl. In a corner of this quaint
old garden, two tiny monuments are affixed to the wall, one chisell