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A PICTURESQUE TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND, BRABANT, &c.

AND

OF THE PICTURESQUE Beauties of THE RIVERS
THAMES AND MEDWAY,

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY R. FAULDER, NEW BOND STREET;
AND J. EGERTON, WHITEHALL.

M DCC XCIV.

PREFACE.

AN early regard and respect for the extraordinary talents of our countryman Hogarth, have been amongst the principal reasons that induced the author to lay these flight memorials of him before the public. When very young he caught a liking, indeed a ftrong partiality, for the productions of this unrivalled Genius, this Pupil of Nature, born with talents to render him equally eminent both as a painter and engraver: and he ventures to hope that he does not too far flatter his own tafte when he is willing to perfuade

him

himself that he is alfo gratifying that of the public, if he fhall be able to rescue from oblivion any genuine and authenticated traces of fuch a man.

A PURCHASE from the late Mrs. Hogarth in the year 1780, made a confiderable addition to the pictures, drawings, and prints in the author's collection. Through this and other channels, he finds himself enabled to convey to the public a number of curious productions from the pencil of our artist; and fuch as either have not been communicated to them, or at least have not been authenticated as his.

SOME of the earliest specimens of them, it must be admitted, though of a curious nature, cannot be thought so interesting as his larger works, yet, as they are original,

ginal, and, in many inftances, ftrongly shew a promife of Hogarth's future fame, they may with propriety be allowed a place in this publication.

THE first efforts of genius fhould always be treasured and noted with the minutest attention and care: they indicate the manner in which rare endowments firft unfold themselves; and the progreffive gradations of a mind towards that excellence, which in Hogarth, it is acknowledged on all hands, was attained.

AFTER what has been faid, the author feels it an indifpenfable duty to add that a small number of these plates were by him made public a few years fince. They were meant only as fpecimens for cabinet use and for the col

lectors

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