Frontispieces & Title Pages

22x25 cm

The Farmer's Return.
W.^m Hogarth delin. | James Basire. Sculp.

The Farmer's Return from London was a short play or interlude written in 1762 written by David Garrick. The play was popular and Hogarth produced a sketch which Garrick hung in his drawing room. The sketch is now lost but James Basire engraved a plate from the drawing which was used as a frontispiece when the play was printed.
The sketch depicts the moment that the Farmer, relating his stories of London, tells of his encounter with the Cock Lane ghost who supposedly would answer questions by knocking once for 'yes' and twice for 'no', teasing his wife by saying that the ghost knocked twice when he asked about her fidelity.
Printed on the page below engraved receipt for The March to Finchley published in The Works of William Hogarth in 1822 known as The Heath edition, the last to use the original Hogarth plates.

Plates abutting. Water damage to top left corner of the paper not affecting plate area.