or 1698, in London, but of a
Westmorland family (Hoggard would seem to have been the earlier
spelling), one member of which, the artist's father, after working as a
schoolmaster in Westmorland, had settled in London as corrector of the
Press.

He must have been a man of some education, since we hear of a
Latin-English Dictionary of his composition, though there seems some
uncertainty as to whether it ever got beyond the initial stage of MS.;
and his son William was early in life bound 'prentice to a silversmith
named Gamble, his business being to learn the graving of arms and
ciphers upon plate. His marvellous gift for caricature soon showed
itself; and a tavern quarrel at Highgate seems to have afforded subject
for an early manifestation of his talent in this direction. As the
period of his 'prenticeship came to its close he entered an Academy of
drawing in St. Martin's Lane, where he may have come under Sir James
Thornhill's notice; but seems to have failed to show any exceptional
proficiency in his life studies. Form, we have seen already, lay
outside--in certain manifestations entirely outside--the peculiar limits
of his temperament. Shop-bills and coats-of-arms were probably the
mainstay of his livelihood at this period, though plates for books were
beginning, little by little, to come in his way; but when in 1730 he
clandestinely married the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the Court
painter was so incensed at this _mesalliance_ that he refused the young
couple any acknowledgment. It was at this very time that Hogarth created
his first work of individual genius in that superb series of plates to
which he gave the name of "The Harlot's Progress"; and it is said that
Lady Thornhill designedly placed one of the plates in her husband's way,
only to elicit the grudging praise of: "The man who can produce these
can also maintain a wife without a portion."

But the ice was broken, and the ensuing thaw led to a complete
reconciliation. Sir James Thornhill treated his daughter and son-in-law
more generously, and lived with them in future till his death in 1733.

At the same time the Series which had brought about domestic
reconciliation, had also brought fame and fortune to the artist. The
third scene of the Progress, in which the erring girl is arrested,
contained, it would seem, a clever portrait of Sir James Gonson, a
magistrate whose energies were famous in this direction. The print is
passed around at a meeting of