[Illustration: THE OLD ELEPHANT, FENCHURCH-STREET.]
Everything connected with the name of HOGARTH is interesting to the
English reader. He was apprenticed to a silversmith, and from cutting
cyphers on silver spoons, he rose to be sergeant painter to the
king--and from engraving arms and shop-bills, to painting kings and
queens--the very top of the artist's ladder. The soul-breathing impulses
of genius enabled him to effect all this, and his example, (in support
of the maxim, that "every man is the architect of his own fortune,")
will be respected and cherished, at home and abroad, as long as
self-advancement continues to be the great stimulus to aspiring
industry.
The old Elephant public-house therefore merits the attention of all
lovers of painting and genius; for in it, previous to his celebrity,
lodged WILLIAM HOGARTH. It was built before the fire of London, and
although so near, escaped its ravages; but the house was pulled down a
short time since, and another of more commodious construction erected on
its site. On the wall of the tap-room, in the old house, were four
paintings by Hogarth: one representing the Hudson's Bay Company's
Porters; another, his first idea for the Modern Midnight Conversation,
(differing from the print in a circumstance too broad in its humour for
the graver,) and another of Harlequin and Pierot seeming to be laughing
at the figure in the last picture.
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