As a connoisseur of Painting this enlightened virtuoso is given over to Hogarth's hated dealers in the Black Masters:-- In curious paintings I'm exceeding nice, And know their several beauties by their _Price_. _Auctions_ and _Sales_ I constantly attend, But chuse my pictures by a _skilful Friend_, Originals and copies much the same, The picture's value is the _painter's name_.[10] Of Sculpture he says-- In spite of _Addison_ and ancient _Rome_, Sir _Cloudesly Shovel's_ is my fav'rite tomb.[11] How oft have I with admiration stood, To view some City-magistrate in wood? I gaze with pleasure on a Lord May'r's head Cast with propriety in gilded lead,-- the allusion being obviously to Cheere's manufactory of such popular garden decorations at Hyde Park Corner. Notes: [10]: See _post_, "M. Ronquet on the Arts," p. 51. [11]: "Sir _Cloudesly Shovel's_ Monument has very often given me great Offence: Instead of the brave rough English Admiral, which was the distinguishing Character of that plain, gallant Man, he is represented on his Tomb [in Westminster Abbey] by the Figure of a Beau, dressed in a long Perriwig, and reposing himself upon Velvet Cushions under a Canopy of State" (_Spectator_, March 30, 1711). In Coins and Medals, true to his instinct for liking the worst the best, he prefers the modern to the antique. In Music, with Hogarth's Rake two years later, he is all for that "Dagon of the nobility and gentry," imported song:-- Without _Italian_, or without an ear, To _Bononcini's_ musick I adhere;-- though he confesses to a partiality for the bagpipe on the ground that your true Briton "loves a grumbling noise," and he favours organs and the popular oratorios. But his "top talent is a bill of fare":-- Sir Loins and rumps of beef offend my eyes,[12] Pleas'd with frogs fricass[e]ed, and coxcomb-pies. Dishes I chuse though little, yet genteel, _Snails_[13] the first course, and _Peepers_[14] crown the meal. Pigs heads with hair on, much my fancy please, I love young colly-flowers if stew'd in cheese, And give ten guineas for a pint of peas! No tatling servants to my table come, My Grace is _Silence_, and my waiter _Dumb_. He is not without his aspirations. Could I the _priviledge_ of _Peer_ procure, The rich I'd bully, and oppress the poor. To _give_ is wrong, but it is wronger still, On any terms to _pay_ a tradesman's bill. I'd make the insolent Mechanicks stay, And keep my ready-money all for _play_. I'd try if any pleasure could be found In _tossing-up_ for twenty thousand pound. Had I whole Counties, I to _White's_ would go, And set lands, woods, and rivers at a throw. But should I meet with an unlucky run, And at a throw be gloriously undone; My _debts of honour_ I'd discharge the first, Let all my _lawful creditors_ be curst. Notes: