The eight paintings of "The Rake's Progress," which had been originally purchased of Hogarth by Francis Beckford, Esq., for £88, 4s., were, at the sale of William Beckford, Esq. of Fonthill, in 18--, sold by the elder Mr. Christie for the sum of 850 guineas. The buyer was Colonel Fullarton, M.P. IDLE AND INDUSTRIOUS APPRENTICE. VOL. I. P. 284. PLATE VIII.--Speaking of the disposition of a crowd in a picture, Mr. Gilpin says:--"I do not recollect having seen a crowd better managed than Hogarth has managed one in the last print of his 'Idle 'Prentice.' In combining the multifarious company which attends the spectacle of an execution, he hath exemplified all the observations I have made. I have not the print before me, but I have often admired it in this light; nor do I recollect observing anything offensive in it, which is rare in the management of such a multitude of figures."--_Observation on the Wye_, p. 123. THE TIMES. VOL. II. P. 180. The wild Indian painted on a show-cloth, with the inscription underneath, "Alive from America," is meant as a satire on Alderman Beckford, for whose recent uncourtly speech to Majesty (see the _Guildhall Statue_) the painter has represented him as a savage. FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. VOL. I. Pp. 222-226. PLATE II.--_Noon._--The boy who has had the misfortune to break the baked pudding, a commentator on Hogarth asserts was the late Mr. Henderson the player, who often sportively assured his friends that he stood to Hogarth for the sketch when he was with Fournier the drawing-master. But this is impossible, as the prints in the receipt are promised to be delivered by Lady-day 1738, several years before Henderson was born. A correspondent has assured us that he has repeatedly heard his grandfather, an individual unknown to the public, refer to that figure in the print as a portrait of himself, asserting that he had just such an accident when a boy on the very spot, and was at that period remarkable for such a head of hair (which was of a very light colour) as is shown in the print. _But query._--With more certainty we may venture to suggest, that the idea of the woman throwing the shoulder of mutton out of the window is borrowed from the old song: "Now John he was no great eater, and Joan she was no great glutton, So the better to pamper their stomachs, they bought them a shoulder of mutton: But Joan in an angry mood took the shoulder of mutton in hand, And out of the window she threw it,--poor John, he was at a stand," etc.