' That Mrs. Hogarth sat for the
picture of Sigismunda seems to have been known to conscientious John,
and this is supported by that lady's conduct to Walpole. This noble
biographer sent her a copy of his Anecdotes, accompanied by a courtly
and soothing note; but she was so much offended by his description of
the Sigismunda, that she took no notice of his present. The widow of the
artist was poor--and an opinion so ill-natured--so depreciating--and so
untrue, injured the property which she wished to sell: she loved too the
memory of her husband, and resented in the dignity of silence the
malicious and injurious attack. She considered the present as an insult
offered when she had no one to protect her. I love her pride and
reverence her affection."
Of Hogarth's house at Chiswick, we have the following slight notice:--
"The time was now approaching when superstition, and folly, and vice,
were to be relieved from the satiric pencil which had awed them so
long--the health of Hogarth began to decline. He was aware of this, and
purchased a small house at Chiswick, to which he retired during the
summer, amusing himself with making slight sketches and retouching his
plates. This house stood till lately on a very pretty spot; but the
demon of building came into the neighbourhood, choked up the garden, and
destroyed the secluded beauty of Hogarth's cottage.
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