William Hogarth, The March of the Guards to Finchley, 1750 © The Foundling Museum

This painting depicts London during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1746. Toward the end of 1745 concerns were raised that the capital would be undefended in the event of a Jacobite attack. William Augustus the Duke of Cumberland, Commander of the British Army, decided to garrison troops to the north of the city as a precaution. In the foreground soldiers can be seen assembling at the Tottenham Court Road turnpike. In the distance more troops are shown marching ahead up the Hampstead Road to make camp at Finchley. In this painting Hogarth contrasts the drunken soldiers in the foreground with the disciplined soldiers marching into the sunlight in the background. Hogarth is clearly showing both sides of soldiery in this painting, which apparently displeased George II, who is alleged to have remarked ‘does the fellow mean to laugh at my guards?’ Hogarth decided to organise a lottery wherein those subscribers who paid three shillings above the standard rate for a print would have the chance to win the original painting. After the subscription closed Hogarth gave the remaining one hundred and sixty-seven unsold lottery tickets to the Foundling Hospital. One of these tickets, number 1941, was drawn from the box and Hogarth personally delivered the painting to the Hospital Governors on the night of April 30th 1750. George II's son, the Duke of Cumberland, was a Governor of the Foundling Hospital.