Hogarth's Frolic. (J. C. Hotten).—Our readers may have seen in
"Hone's Everyday Book," or elsewhere, The Five Days' Peregrination round the Isle of Sheppey by William Hogarth and his Fellow-pilgrims,
Scott, Tothall, Thornhill, and Forest." It was such a trip as has been taken and will be taken times oat of number by Londoners, and would have been forgotten, but for the fame of one of the travellers, who illustrated it with a few very slight, but characteristic sketches. These sketches are reproduced in sepia from the original drawings. These, indeed, were done in part by Scott, who was a marine painter of some eminence. Thornhill was also a painter, but of another kind, being required by his office as " Serjeant Painter to the King" to paint
"all the Royal palaces, coaches, barges, and the Royal Navy." The volume also includes an account of the tour hi Hudibrastic verse from the pen of the Rev. W. Gostling, a minor canon of Canterbury. Surely the author of the introduction misunderstands Thackeray's criticism on the tour, that it was "a jolly party of tradesmen engaged at high jinks," when he takes it as erroneously describing the social position of Hogarth and his companions. Thackoray, who knew this particular period exceedingly well, was certainly aware what the travellers were ; only one of them was an actual tradesman. He meant that they had the bourgeois manners. And assuredly the manners are somewhat coarse. The "Account of Disbursements for Messrs. Hogarth and Co." is of course a curiosity. (A man's life would often be more interesting to posteritythan his books, but he will not believe it.) It gives us glimpses of an enviable cheapness. The five travellers break- fasted, for instance, at Gravesend for 2s. 2d., and paid for bed, break- fast, and attendance at Queensborough, 7s. Altogether the five days cost the five of them six guineas, just 5s. a day each, and they did not spare expense. May we suggest that the spelling of "boorish sits" which we find in the introduction is somewhat unusual ?
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