On the back stretcher Walpole has noted, A Sketch of The Beggar's Opera as first performed: Macheath, in red, by Walker. Polly kneeling, in white, by Miss Fenton, afterwards Duchess of Bolton; Lucy in green, her face turned away, by Mrs. Eggleton; Peachum, in black, by Hippisley; Lockit, by Hall. Amongst the audience, on the left hand, Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby, a tall gentleman with a long lean face; on the right, Sir Robert Fagge, profile, a fat man with short grey hair, much known at Newmarket. Painted by Hogarth. H.W. John Gay's musical play became so popular after it was first introduced in 1728 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, that it ran intermittently at other theatres until 1800. This painting hung in the Great North Bedchamber at Strawberry Hill.