RECENTLY, WE VISITED the Foundling Museum near Russell Square in London. One of the many interesting items we saw there was a painting by the artist William Hogarth (1697-1764), who donated it to support the Foundling Hospital, which was established in his lifetime.

The large oil-painting, “The March of the Guards to Finchley” was completed in 1750. It depicts troops gathering at the northern end of London’s Tottenham Court Road. In the foreground, there is a disorderly-looking crowd of soldiers who are mingling with civilians, mostly ladies. The soldiers and the other people appear to have been having a jolly time, bordering on debauchery. The military do not look as if they were in a fit state to face the enemy, whom they are about to head towards.

The soldiers were about to head north from London to defend it from the second Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which was part of a series of uprisings that were aimed at returning the Stuart Dynasty to the throne after the Glorious Revolution of 1688

( See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rebellion_of_1745) .

Behind the rabble of soldiers and other merry makers, Hogarth had painted an orderly parade of soldiers, dressed in red jackets, heading away from London through open countryside towards a distant range of hills. They appeared to be heading north by northeast. On the summit of a hill, there is a cluster of light-coloured buildings – a hill town, which is shown to the northwest of the soldiers marching in an orderly fashion.

Hogarth’s painting shows what was the northern edge of London in 1750. Eighteenth century maps, including one drawn by Rocque in 1746, show that north of the northern end of Tottenham Court Road, the roadway continued north by northeast, and this was most likely the path being followed by the orderly line of soldiers. Today, this road still exists, and is now named Hampstead Road.

Hampstead Road runs north to Camden Town, and its continuation, Chalk Farm Road that becomes Haverstock Hill, runs northwest and steeply upwards before becoming High Street Hampstead. The modern roads follow the old roads that existed at the time when Hogarth created his painting, “The March of the Guards to Finchley”.

Now, you might be wondering where this discussion is heading. Apart from the wonderful portrayal of soldiers and civilians enjoying a merry time, what interested me most was the small town on the summit of the distant hill. From what I have discussed above about London’s geography both in 1750 and today, it is most likely that the hill town shown in the painting was Hampstead.

Hogarth’s 1745 depiction of Hampstead as a hill town separated from London is a great illustration of what I wrote in my book about Hampstead, “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs”:

“The essayist and poet Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), a sometime resident of Hampstead, related in his book The Town (published in 1848):

‘In Elizabeth’s time, you might set out from the site of the present Pall-mall, and, leaving St. Giles in the Fields on the right hand, walk all the way to Hampstead without encountering perhaps a dwelling-place.’

During the first few decades of the 19th century, the village (or town: call it what you wish; I will stick to ‘village’) of Hampstead was still as it was in Elizabethan times: separated from the rest of London by open countryside. It was linked to London by a single road, which followed the course of the present Haverstock Hill and its continuation, Hampstead High Street. However, by 1848, Hunt noted that:

‘…every village which was in the immediate and even the remote neighbourhood of London, and was quite distinct from one another at the beginning of the reign of George the Third, is now almost, if not quite, joined with it, including Highgate and Hampstead ….

George III reigned from 1760 until 1820.”

Finally, when looking at Hogarth’s picture at the Foundling museum, an attendant told me that in the artist’s time, people in London sometimes believed they could see snow covering the hillside around Hampstead, even in the height of summer. What they were seeing was sheets and other laundry that had been laid out to dry. Hampstead was, and is now to a lesser extent, richly endowed with sources of clean water.

Among from the many other exhibits in the fascinating Foundling Museum, I found the painting with its distant view of Hampstead to be most interesting – so much so that I need to revisit the museum to savour its other items properly.