the vagaries of collecting. Since then prices of Hogarth have dropped even lower still.
The truth is that Hogarth requires a great deal of study to collect him properly, and slip-shod collectors are rather shy of being "taken in" with a contemporary copy. Owing to his great popularity, the great number of prints struck off his own plates told on their quality. In later days these plates were retouched, so that impressions from them are practically worthless.
While Hogarth was engraving his March to Finchley, another eminent engraver, Robert Strange (1721-1792), a Scotsman born in the Orkneys, was present at the battle of Prestonpans as one of the bodyguard of the Stuart Pretender, Charles Edward. He was appointed engraver to that prince, and, in spite of all Presbyterian scruples, worked against time on Sunday, engraving his copper plate, from which bank-notes were to be struck. This plate was lost in the flight after Culloden, but was found in 1835, and is now in the possession of the Macpherson family of Cluny Castle. Strange executed a plate, Prince Charles Edward, "Engraved by command," 1745, which is very rare. After studying at Paris under Le Bas, he visited Italy. On appearing in London, his fame had preceded him, and his pronounced Jacobite views were pardoned, as we find permission granted to him, through the influence of Sir Benjamin West, to copy Vandyck's portraits of the Stuarts in the royal collections. From these he made some of his finest plates. His full-length portrait of Charles I. in his robes, a magnificent piece of work,
