7^ To JOHN HUTCHINS 17 FEBRUARY 1767

To the REV. JOHN HUTCHINS, Tuesday 17 February 1767

Printed from the MS now WSL. First printed in John Hutchins, The History and Antiquities of the County of , 3d edn, ed. William Shipp and J. W. Hodson, 1861-73, ». 462. Reprinted, Toynbee vii. 86. The MS was penes Henry Sotheran and Co. in 1904; later acquired by C. Francis Gaskill, who sold it in a collection of Walpoliana to WSL, 1939. Endorsed in an unidentified hand: Walpole. Arlington Street, Feb. 17, 1767. Sir, IN the autumn I turned over Vertue's MSS to see if I could find anything satisfactory for you relating to Sir James Thornhill,1 but indeed I could not. There is nothing, but some few notices relating to his works, the principal of which were the cupola of St Paul's2 and his paintings at .3 I believe it would be your best way to apply to his daughter Mrs Hogarth/ widow of the famous painter. I believe she still lives at the Golden Head in Leicester Fields.s To be sure she would be glad to contribute to the illustration of her father's memory. I am sorry it is not in my power, Sir, to give you better information, and am Sir Your humble servant

HOR. WALPOLE

PS. I shall immediately send and subscribe, Sir, to your work.6

1. See ante 22 Sept. 1765 and 10 May also Connoisseur, 1923, lxvi. 162-3, ano^ 1766. 1926, lxxiv. 3-7). 2. Monochrome paintings of eight 4. Jane Thornhill (ca 1709-89), m. (se­ scenes from the life of St Paul, commis­ cretly, 1729) (1697— sioned after the completion of the Cathe­ 1764). dral dome to decorate its interior (A His­ 5. In 1733 Hogarth took a house in of St Paul's Cathedral, ed. W. R. Leicester Fields known as the Golden Matthews and W. M. Atkins, 1957, pp. Head, its sign being a head of Vandyck. 204, 342; DNB). After his death in 1764, his wife con­ 3. murals and ceiling paint­ tinued to live there when in town, car­ ings in the Great Hall and upper hall and rying on a lucrative trade in Hogarth the cupola vestibule of the Royal Naval prints (Ronald Paulson, Hogarth: His Hospital, executed 1705-27 ('The Royal Life, Art, and Times, New Haven, 1971, Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich 1694- i. 337-40, ii. 511). 1728,' Wren Society 1929, vi. 77-9; see 6. See ante 22 Sept. 1765, n. 6.