WILLIAM HOGARTH[5] is said (under the article THORNHILL in the _Biographia Britannica_) to have been born in 1698, in the parish of _St. Bartholomew,[6] London_, to which parish, it is added, he was afterwards a benefactor. The outset of his life, however, was unpromising. "He was bound," says Mr. _Walpole_, "to a mean engraver of arms on plate." _Hogarth_ probably chose this occupation, as it required some skill in drawing, to which his genius was particularly turned, and which he contrived assiduously to cultivate. His master, it since appears, was Mr. _Ellis Gamble_, a silversmith of eminence, who resided in _Cranbourn-street, Leicester-fields_. In this profession it is not unusual to bind apprentices to the single branch of engraving arms and cyphers on every species of metal; and in that particular department of the business young _Hogarth_ was placed;[7] "but, before his time was expired, he felt the impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting." During his apprenticeship, he set out one _Sunday_, with two or three companions, on an excursion to _Highgate_. The weather being hot, they went into a public-house, where they had not been long, before a quarrel arose between some persons in the same room. One of the disputants struck the other on the head with a quart pot, and cut him very much. The blood running down the man's face, together with the agony of the wound, which had distorted his features into a most hideous grin, presented _Hogarth_, who shewed himself thus early "apprised of the mode Nature had intended he should pursue," with too laughable a subject to be overlooked. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one of the most ludicrous figures that ever was seen. What rendered this piece the more valuable was, that it exhibited an exact likeness of the man, with the portrait of his antagonist, and the figures in caricature of the principal persons gathered round him. This anecdote was furnished by one of his fellow apprentices then present, a person of indisputable character, and who continued his intimacy with _Hogarth_ long after they both grew up into manhood. "His apprenticeship was no sooner expired," says Mr. _Walpole_, "than he entered into the academy in _St. Martin's Lane_, and studied drawing from the life, in which he never attained to great excellence. It was character, the passions, the soul, that his genius was given him to copy. In colouring he proved no greater a master: his force lay in expression, not in tints and chiaro scuro."