Note 157 — HOGARTH ILLUSTRATED. (continued 3)

The public must certainly have had the same opinion, for at that period Mr. Wilkes was in the meridian of his popularity. Though not exactly like Gay's hare in the fable, he had many friends, and Mr. Nichols relates, that a copperplate printer informed him near four thousand copies of this etching were worked off in a few weeks. These must necessarily have been sold, and we may naturally infer were bought by his friends.