n, Wilkes, and the gay Duke of Wharton,
and witty Morley, the author of Joe Miller, and Walker, the celebrated
Macheath, and the well-known Bab Selby, the oyster-woman, and Fig, the
boxer, and old Corins, the clerical attorney.--All "hail, fellow,
well met."{6} And a friend of mine has in his possession a most
extraordinary picture of Hogarth's, on this subject, which has never yet
been engraved from. It is called St. James's Day, or the first day
of oysters, and represents the interior of the Spiller's Head in
Clare-market, as it then appeared. The principal figures are the gay
and dissolute Duke of Wharton, for whom the well-known Bab Selby, the
oyster-wench, is opening oysters; Spiller is standing at her back,
patting her shoulder; the figure sitting smoking by the side of the duke
is a portrait of Morley, the author of Joe Miller; and the man standing
behind is a portrait of the well-known attendant on the duke's drunken
frolics, Fig, the brother of Fig, the boxer: the person drinking at the
bar is Corins, called the parson-attorney, from his habit of dressing
in clerical attire; the two persons sitting at the table represent
portraits of the celebrated Dr. Garth, and Betterton, the actor; the
figures, also, of Walker, the celebrated Macheath, and Lavinia
Fenton, the highly-reputed Polly, afterwards Duchess of Bolton, may be
recognised in the back-ground.

The circumstances of this picture having escaped the notice of the
biographer of Hogarth is by no means singular. Mr. Halls, one of the
magistrates at Bow-street, has, among other choice specimens by Hogarth,
the lost picture of the Harlot's Progress; the subject telling her
fortune by the tea-grounds in her cup, admirably characteristic of the
artist and his story. In my own collection I have the original picture
of the Fish-Women of Calais, with a view of the market-place, painted
on the spot, and as little known as the others to which I have alluded.
There are, no doubt, many other equally clever performances of Hogarth's
prolific pencil which are not generally known to the public, or have not
yet been engraved. ~350~~in the same neighbourhood, in Russel-court, at
the old Cheshire Cheese, the inimitable but dissolute Tom Brown wrote
many of his cleverest essays. Then too commenced the midnight revelries
and notoriety of the Cider Cellar, in Maiden-lane, when Sim Sloper, Bob
Washington, Jemmy Tas well, Totty Wright, and Harry Hatzell, led the way
for a whole reg