Chapter VII: Revival of Wood Engraving (3)

In the cut of the child, unconscious of its danger, pulling at the long tail of a young unbroken colt, the story is most admirably told. The nurse, who is seen engaged with her sweetheart by the side of the hedge, has left the child to wander at will, and thus expose itself to destruction; while the mother, who has accidentally perceived the danger of her darling, is seen hastening over the stile, regardless of the steps, in an agony of fear. The backward glance of the horse’s eye, and the heel raised ready to strike, most forcibly suggest the danger to which the unthinking infant is exposed.

Though the subject of the following cut be simple, yet the _sentiment_ which it displays is the genuine offspring of true genius. Near to a ruined cottage, while all around is covered with snow, a lean and hungry ewe is seen nibbling at an old broom, while her young and weakly lamb is sucking her milkless teats. Such a picture of animal want--conceived with so much feeling, and so well expressed,--has perhaps never been represented by any artist except Bewick.

The original of the following cut forms the tail-piece to the last page of the edition of 1824. An old man, wearing a parson’s cast-off beaver and wig, is seen carrying his young wife and child across a stream. The complacent look of the cock-nosed wife shows that she enjoys the treat, while the old drudge patiently bears his burden, and with his right hand keeps a firm _grip_ of the nether end of his better part. This cut is an excellent satire on those old men who marry young wives and become dotingly uxorious in the decline of life; submitting to every indignity to please their youthful spouses and reconcile them to their state. It is a _new reading_ of January and May,--he an old travelling beggar, and she a young slut with her heels peeping, or rather staring, through her stockings.

Mr. Solomon Hodgson, the printer of the first four editions of the Quadrupeds, had an interest in the work; he died in 1800; and in consequence of a misunderstanding between his widow and Bewick, the latter had the subsequent editions printed at the office of Mr. Edward Walker. Mrs. Hodgson having asserted, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for July 1805, that Bewick was neither the author nor the projector of the History of Quadrupeds, but “was employed merely as the engraver or wood-cutter,” he, in justification of his own claims, gave the following account of the origin of the work.[VII-52] “From my first reading, when a boy at school, a sixpenny History of Birds and Beasts, and a then wretched composition called the History of Three Hundred Animals, to the time I became acquainted with works on Natural History written for the perusal of men, I never was without the design of attempting something of this kind myself; but my principal object was (and still is) directed to the mental pleasure and improvement of youth; to engage their attention, to direct their steps aright, and to lead them on till they become enamoured of this innocent and delightful pursuit. Some time after my partnership with Mr. Beilby commenced, I communicated my wishes to him, who, after many conversations, came into my plan of publishing a History of Quadrupeds, and I then immediately began to draw the animals, to design the vignettes, and to cut them on wood, and this, to avoid interruption, frequently till very late in the night; my partner at the same time undertaking to compile and draw up the descriptions and history at his leisure hours and evenings at home. With the accounts of the foreign animals I did not much interfere; the sources whence I had drawn the little knowledge I possessed were open to my coadjutor, and he used them; but to those of the animals of our own country, as my partner before this time had paid little attention to natural history, I lent a helping hand. This help was given in daily conversations, and in occasional notes and memoranda, which were used in their proper places. As the cuts were engraved, we employed the late Mr. Thomas Angus, of this town, printer, to take off a certain number of impressions of each, many of which are still in my possession. At Mr. Angus’s death the charge for this business was not made in his books, and at the request of his widow and ourselves, the late Mr. Solomon Hodgson fixed the price; and yet the widow and executrix of Mr. Hodgson asserts in your Magazine, that I was ‘merely employed as the engraver or wood-cutter,’ (I suppose) by her husband! Had this been the case, is it probable that Mr. Hodgson would have had the cuts printed in any other office than his own? The fact is the reverse of Mrs. Hodgson’s statement; and although I have never, either ‘insidiously’ or otherwise, used any means to cause the reviewers, or others, to hold me up as the ‘first and sole mover of the concern,’ I am now dragged forth by her to declare that _I am the man_.

[Footnote VII-52: This account is extracted from a letter written
by Bewick, and printed in the Monthly Magazine for November 1805.]

“But to return to my story:--while we were in the progress of our work, prudence suggested that it might be necessary to inquire how our labours were to be ushered to the world, and, as we were unacquainted with the printing and publishing of books, what mode was the most likely to insure success. Upon this subject Mr. Hodgson was consulted, and made fully acquainted with our plan. He entered into the undertaking with uncommon ardour, and urged us strenuously not to retain our first humble notions of ‘making it like a school-book,’ but pressed us to let it ‘assume a more respectable form.’ From this warmth of our friend we had no hesitation in offering him a share in the work, and a copartnership deed was entered into between us, for that purpose, on the 10th of April 1790. What Mr. Hodgson did in correcting the press, beyond what falls to the duty of every printer, I know not; but I am certain that he was extremely desirous that it should have justice done it. In this _weaving of words_ I did not interfere, as I believed it to be in hands much fitter than my own, only I took the liberty of blotting out whatever I knew not to be truth.”

The favourable manner in which the History of Quadrupeds was received determined Bewick to commence without delay his History of British Birds. He began to draw and engrave the cuts in 1791, and in 1797 the first volume of the work, containing the Land Birds, was published.[VII-53] The letter-press, as in the Quadrupeds, was written by his partner, Mr. Beilby, who certainly deserves great praise for the manner in which he has performed his task. The descriptions generally have the great merit of being simple, intelligible, and correct. There are no trifling details about system, no confused arguments about classification, which more frequently bewilder than inform the reader who is uninitiated in the piebald jargon of what is called “Systematic nomenclature.” He describes the quadruped or bird in a manner which enables even the most unlearned to recognize it when he sees it; and, like one who is rather wishful to inform his readers than to display his own acquaintance with the scientific vocabulary, he carefully avoids the use of all terms which are not generally understood. Mr. Beilby, though in a different manner and in a less degree, is fairly entitled to share with Bewick in the honour of having rendered popular in this country the study of the most interesting and useful branches of Zoology--Quadrupeds and Birds--by giving the descriptions in simple and intelligible language, and presenting to the eye the very form and character of the living animals. As a copper-plate engraver, Mr. Beilby has certainly no just pretensions to fame; but as a compiler, and as an able coadjutor of Bewick in simplifying the study of Natural History, and rendering its most interesting portions easy of attainment to the young, and to those unacquainted with the “science,” he deserves higher praise than he has hitherto generally received. Roger Thornton’s Monument, and the Plan of Newcastle, in the Reverend John Brand’s History of that town, were engraved by Mr. Beilby. Mr. Brand’s book-plate was also engraved by him. It is to be found in most of the books that formerly belonged to that celebrated antiquary, who is well known to all collectors from the extent of his purchases at stalls, and the number of curious old books which he thus occasionally obtained.--The Reverend William Turner, of Newcastle, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for June 1801, vindicates the character of Mr. Beilby from what he considers the detractions of Dr. Gleig, in an article on Wood-cuts in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. Beilby was a native of the city of Durham, and was brought up as a silversmith and seal-engraver under his father. He died at Newcastle on the 4th of January 1817, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

[Footnote VII-53: Of this edition, 1,874 copies were printed,--one
thousand demy octavo, at 10_s._ 6_d._; eight hundred and fifty
thin and thick royal, at 13_s._, and 15_s._; and twenty-four
imperial at £1 1_s._ The first edition of the second volume, 1804,
consisted of the same number of copies as the first, but the
prices were respectively 12_s._, 15_s._, 18_s._ and £1 4_s._]

The partnership between Beilby and Bewick having been dissolved in 1797, shortly after the publication of the first volume of the Birds, the descriptions in the second, which did not appear till 1804, were written by Bewick himself, but revised by the Reverend Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedlington. The publication of this volume formed the key-stone of Bewick’s fame as a designer and engraver on wood; for though the cuts are not superior to those of the first, they are not excelled, nor indeed equalled, by any that he afterwards executed. The subsequent additions, whether as cuts of birds or tail-pieces, are not so excellent as numerous--in this respect the reverse of the additions to the Quadrupeds. Though all the birds were designed, and nearly all of them engraved by Bewick himself, there are yet living witnesses who can testify that both in the drawing and the engraving of the tail-pieces he received very considerable assistance from his pupils, more especially from Robert Johnson as a draftsman, and Luke Clennell as a wood engraver.[VII-54] Before saying anything further on this subject, it seems necessary to give the following passage from Mr. Atkinson’s Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick. “With regard to the circumstance that the _British Birds_, with very few exceptions, were finished by his own hand, I have it in my power to pledge myself. I had been a good deal surprised one day by hearing a gentleman assert that very few of them were his own work, all the easy parts being executed by his pupils. I saw him the same day, and, talking of his art, inquired if he permitted the assistance of his apprentices in many cases? He said, ‘No; it had seldom happened, and then they had injured the cuts very much.’ I inquired if he could remember any of them in which he had received assistance? He said, ‘Aye: I can soon tell you them;’ and, after a few minutes’ consideration, he made out, with his daughter’s assistance, _the Whimbrel_, _Tufted Duck_, and _Lesser Tern_:[VII-55] he tried to recollect more, and turning to his daughter, said, ‘Jane, honey, dost thou remember any more?’ She considered a little, and said, ‘No: she did not; but that certainly there were not half a dozen in all:’ those we both pressed him to do over again. ‘He intended it,’ he said; but, alas! this intention was prevented. In some cases, I am informed, he made his pupils block out for him; that is, furnished them with an outline, and let them cut away the edges of the block to that line; but as, in this case, the assistance rendered is much the same as that afforded by a turner’s apprentice when he rounds off the heavy mass of wood in readiness for a more experienced hand, but not a line of whose performance remains in the beautiful toy it becomes, it does not materially shake the authenticity of the work in question.”

[Footnote VII-54: Pinkerton having stated in his Scottish Gallery,
on the authority of Messrs. Morison, printers, of Perth, that
Bewick, “observing the uncommon genius of his late apprentice,
Robert Johnson, employed him to trace the figures on the wood in
the History of Quadrupeds,” Bewick, in his letter, printed in the
Monthly Magazine for November 1805, previously quoted, thus denies
the assertion: “It is only necessary for me to declare, and this
will be attested by my partner Mr. Beilby, who compiled the
History of Quadrupeds, and was a proprietor of the work, that
neither Robert Johnson, nor any person but myself, made the
drawings, or traced or cut them on the wood.”--Robert Johnson was
employed by Messrs. Morison to copy for the Scottish Gallery
several portraits at Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Earl of
Breadalbane. Bewick in this letter carefully avoids pleading to
that with which he was not charged; he does not deny that several
of the drawings of the tail-pieces in the History of British Birds
were made by Robert Johnson. A pupil of Bewick’s, now living, saw
many of Johnson’s drawings for these cuts, and sat beside Clennell
when he was engraving them.]

[Footnote VII-55: These three cuts were engraved by one of
Bewick’s pupils, named Henry Hole. Neither Bewick’s memory nor his
daughter’s had been accurate on this occasion; but not one of the
other cuts which they failed to recollect can be compared with
those engraved by Bewick himself. In addition to those three, the
following, not engraved by Bewick himself, had appeared at the
time the above conversation took place--some time between 1825 and
1826:--the Brent Goose, the Lesser Imber, and the Cormorant,
engraved by L. Clennell; the Velvet Duck, the Red-breasted
Merganser, and the Crested Cormorant, by H. Hole; the Rough-legged
Falcon, the Pigmy Sand-piper, the Red Sand-piper, and the Eared
Grebe, by W. W. Temple.]

Though it is evident that Bewick meant here simply to assert that all the _figures_ of the _birds_, except the few which he mentions, were entirely engraved by himself, yet his biographer always speaks as if _every one_ of the cuts in the work--both birds and tail-pieces--were exclusively engraved by Bewick himself; and in consequence of this erroneous opinion he refers to seven cuts[VII-56] as affording favourable instances of Bewick’s manner of representing water, although _not one_ of them was engraved by him, but by Luke Clennell, from drawings by himself or by Robert Johnson. Mr. Atkinson, in his admiration of Bewick, and in his desire to exaggerate his fame, entirely overlooks the merits of those by whom he was assisted. Charlton Nesbit and Luke Clennell rendered him more assistance, though not in the cuts of birds, than such as that “afforded by a turner’s apprentice when he rounds off the heavy mass of wood;” and Robert Johnson, who designed many of the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figure more correctly than Bewick himself, and in landscape-drawing was at least his equal. These observations are not intended in the least to detract from Bewick’s just and deservedly great reputation, but to correct the erroneous opinions which have been promulgated on this subject by persons who knew nothing of the very considerable assistance which he received from his pupils in the drawing and engraving of the tail-pieces in his history of British Birds.

[Footnote VII-56: “He never could, he said, please himself in his
representations of water in a state of motion, and a horse
galloping: his taste must have been fastidious indeed, if that
beautiful moonlight scene at sea, page 120, vol. ii. [edition
1816]; the river scene at page 126; the sea breaking among the
rocks at page 168, or 177, or 200, or 216; or the rippling of the
water as it leaves the feet of the old fisherman, at page 95, did
not satisfy him.” In scarcely one of the cuts engraved by Bewick
himself is water in a state of motion well represented. He knew
his own deficiency in this respect; though Mr. Atkinson, not being
able to distinguish the cuts engraved by Bewick himself from those
engraved by his pupils, cannot perceive it.]

Though three of the best specimens of Bewick’s talents as a designer and engraver on wood--the Bittern, the Wood-cock, and the Common Duck[VII-57]--are to be found in the second volume, containing the water-birds, yet the land-birds in the first volume, from his being more familiar with their habits, and in consequence of their allowing more scope for the display of Bewick’s excellence in the representation of foliage, are, on the whole, superior both in design and execution to the others; their characteristic attitude and expression are represented with the greatest truth, while, from the propriety of the back-grounds, and the beauty of the trees and foliage, almost every cut forms a perfect little picture. Bewick’s talent in pourtraying the form and character of birds is seen to great advantage in the hawks and the owls; but his excellence, both as a designer and engraver on wood, is yet more strikingly displayed in several of the other cuts contained in the same volume, and among these the following are perhaps the best. The numbers refer to the pages of the first edition of the Land Birds, 1797. The Field-fare, page 98; the Yellow Bunting, a most exquisite cut, and considered by Bewick as the best that he ever engraved, 143; the Goldfinch, 165; the Skylark, 178; the Woodlark, 183; the Lesser and the Winter Fauvette, 212, 213; the Willow Wren, 222; the Wren, 227; the White-rump, 229; the Cole Titmouse, 241; the Night-Jar, 262; the Domestic Cock, 276; the Turkey, 286; the Pintado, 293; the Red Grouse, 301; the Partridge, 305; the Quail, 308; and the Corncrake, 311.--Among the Birds in the second volume, first edition, 1804, the following may be instanced as the most excellent. The Water Crake, page 10; the Water Rail, 13; the Bittern, 47; the Woodcock, 60; the Common Snipe, 68; the Judcock, or Jack Snipe, 73; the Dunlin, 117; the Dun Diver, 257; the Grey Lag Goose, 292; and the Common Duck, 333.

[Footnote VII-57: The cut here given is engraved by Bewick at a
somewhat earlier date, for a once popular work entitled the
History of Three Hundred Animals, since incorporated in Mrs.
Loudon’s “Entertaining Naturalist.”]

Nothing of the same kind that wood engraving has produced since the time of Bewick can for a moment bear a comparison with these cuts. They are not to be equalled till a designer and engraver shall arise possessed of Bewick’s knowledge of nature, and endowed with his happy talent of expressing it. Bewick has in this respect effected more by himself than has been produced by one of our best wood engravers when working from drawings made by a professional designer, but who knows nothing of birds, of their habits, or the places which they frequent; and has not the slightest feeling for natural incident or picturesque beauty.--No mere fac-simile engraver of a drawing ready made to his hand, should venture to speak slightingly of Bewick’s talents until he has both _drawn and engraved_ a cut which may justly challenge a comparison with the Kyloe Ox, the Yellow-hammer, the Partridge, the Wood-cock, or the Tame Duck.

Bewick’s style of engraving, as displayed in the Birds, is exclusively his own. He adopts no conventional mode of representing texture or producing an effect, but skilfully avails himself of the most simple and effective means which his art affords of faithfully and efficiently representing his subject. He never wastes his time in laborious trifling to display his skill in execution;--he works with a higher aim, to represent nature; and, consequently, he never bestows his pains except to express a meaning. The manner in which he has represented the feathers in many of his birds, is as admirable as it is perfectly original. His feeling for his subject, and his knowledge of his art, suggest the best means of effecting his end, and the manner in which he has employed them entitle him to rank as a wood engraver--without reference to his merits as a designer--among the very best that have practised the art.

Our copy of his cut of the Partridge, though not equal to the original, will perhaps to a certain extent serve to exemplify his practice. Every line that is to be perceived in this bird is the best that could have been devised to express the engraver’s perfect idea of his subject. The soft downy plumage of the breast is represented by delicate black lines crossed horizontally by white ones, and in order that they may appear comparatively light in the impression, the block has in this part been lowered. The texture of the skin of the legs, and the marks of the toes, are expressed with the greatest accuracy; and the varied tints of the plumage of the rump, back, wings, and head, are indicated with no less fidelity.--Such a cut as this Bewick would execute in less time than a modern French wood engraver would require to cut the delicate cross-hatchings necessary, according to French taste, to denote the grey colour of a soldier’s great coat.

The cut of the Wood-cock, of which that on the next page is a copy, is another instance of the able manner in which Bewick has availed himself of the capabilities of his art. He has here produced the most perfect likeness of the bird that ever was engraved, and at the same time given to his subject an effect, by the skilful management of light and shade, which it is impossible to obtain by means of copper-plate engraving. Bewick thoroughly understood the advantages of his art in this respect, and no wood engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere effect.

Among the very best of Bewick’s cuts, as a specimen of wood engraving, is, as we have already said, the Common Duck. The round, full form of the bird, is represented with the greatest fidelity; the plumage in all its downy, smooth, and glossy variety,--on the sides, the rump, the back, the wings, and the head,--is singularly true to nature; while the legs and toes, and even the webs between the toes, are engraved in a manner which proves the great attention that Bewick, when necessary, paid to the minutest points of detail. The effect of the whole is excellent, and the back-ground, both in character and execution, is worthy of this master-piece of Bewick as a designer and engraver on wood.

The tail-pieces in the first editions of the Birds are, taken all together, the best that are to be found in any of Bewick’s works; but, though it is not unlikely that he suggested the subjects, there is reason to believe that many of them were drawn by Robert Johnson, and there cannot be a doubt that the greater number of those contained in the second volume were engraved by Luke Clennell. Before saying anything more about them, it seems necessary to give a list of those which were either not drawn or not engraved by Bewick himself; it has been furnished by one of his early pupils who saw most of Johnson’s drawings, and worked in the same room with Clennell when he was engraving those which are here ascribed to him. The pages show where those cuts are to be found in the edition of 1797 and in that of 1821.

Editions

VOLUME I 1797 1821
page page

Boughs and Bird’s-nest, drawn and engraved by Charlton
Nesbit, preface i i
Sportsman and Old Shepherd, drawn by Robert Johnson,
engraved by Bewick, preface (transferred to Vol. ii.
preface, page vi. in the edition of 1821) vi --
Old Man breaking stones, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved
by Bewick 26 xxviii
Horse running away with boys in the cart, drawn by
R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 82 146
Fox and Bird, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 159 140
Winter piece, the _geldard_, drawn by R. Johnson,
engraved by Bewick 162 160

Editions

VOLUME II 1804 1821
page page

Two Old Soldiers, “the Honours of War,” drawn by
R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick, introduction v vii
Man creeping along the branch of a tree to cross a
stream, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 3 63
Old Fisherman, with a leister, drawn by R. Johnson,
engraved by L. Clennell 23 38
The Broken Branch, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by
Bewick 31 41
Old Man watching his fishing-lines in the rain, drawn
by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 41 48
Man angling, his coat-skirts pinned up, engraved by
L. Clennell 46 57
Old Angler _fettling_ his hooks, engraved by
L. Clennell 50 97
Partridge shooting, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by
L. Clennell 82 105
Woman hanging out clothes, engraved by L. Clennell
(transferred to vol. i. page 164, edition of 1821) 106 --
Man fallen into the water, engraved by L. Clennell 94 262
River scene, engraved by L. Clennell 107 132
Coast scene, engraved by H. Hole 123 124
Coast scene, moonlight, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved
by L. Clennell 125 122
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole 144 142
Beggar and Mastiff, engraved L. Clennell 160 207
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 161 151
Burying-ground, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 166 237
Man and Cow, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 173 161
Tinker and his Wife, windy day, drawn by R. Johnson,
engraved by H. Hole 176 148
Winter piece, skating, drawn by R. Johnson engraved
by Bewick 180 202
Man on a rock, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by
L. Clennell 182 177
Icebergs, Ship frozen up, drawn and engraved by
L. Clennell 188 156
Sea piece, moonlight, engraved by L. Clennell 194 190
Tired Sportsman, engraved by L. Clennell 202 245
The Glutton, engraved by L. Clennell 211 195
Sea piece, engraved by L. Clennell 215 197
Runic Pillar, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by John
Johnson 220 342
Esquimaux and Canoe, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 230 211
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 238 306
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by
L. Clennell 240 218
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 245 220
Man and Dog, engraved by H. Hole 251 228
Geese going home, engraved by L. Clennell 271 260
Boys sailing a Ship, engraved by L. Clennell 282 268
Old Man and a Horse, going to market with two sacks full
of geese 286 247
Boys riding on gravestones, drawn by R. Johnson,
engraved by L. Clennell 304 323
Man smoking, engraved by L. Clennell 337 303
Pumping water on a weak leg, engraved by L. Clennell 348 304
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 359 314
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 366 242
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell (in
Supplement to vol. ii. p. 20) 380 --

This list might be considerably increased by inserting many other tail-pieces engraved by Clennell; but this does not appear necessary, as a sufficient number has been enumerated to show that both in the designing and in the engraving of those cuts Bewick received very considerable assistance from his pupils. In the additional tail-pieces to be found in subsequent editions the greater number are not engraved by Bewick himself. In the last edition, published in 1832, there are at least thirty engraved by his pupils subsequent to the time of Clennell.

The head-piece at the commencement of the introduction, volume I. page vii. drawn and engraved by Bewick himself, presents an excellent view of a farm-yard. Everything is true to nature; the birds assembled near the woman seen winnowing corn are, though on a small scale, represented with the greatest fidelity; even among the smallest the wagtail can be distinguished from the sparrow. The dog, feeling no interest in the business, is seen quietly resting on the dunghill; but the chuckling of the hens, announcing that something like eating is going forward, has evidently excited the attention of the old sow, and brought her and her litter into the yard in the expectation of getting a share. The season, the latter end of autumn, is indicated by the flight of field-fares, and the comparatively naked appearance of the trees; and we perceive that it is a clear, bright day from the strong shadow of the ladder projected against the wall, and on the thatched roof of the outhouse. A heron, a crow, and a magpie are perceived nailed against the gable end of the barn; and a couple of pigeons are seen flying above the house. The cut forms at once an interesting picture of country life, and a graphic summary of the contents of the work.

Among the tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himself, in the first edition of the Birds, the following appear most deserving of notice. In volume I.: A traveller drinking,--supposed to represent a sketch of his own costume when making a tour of the Lakes in 1776,--introduced twice, at the end of the contents, page xxx. and again at page 177. A man _watering_, in a different sense to the preceding, a very natural, though not a very delicate subject, at page 42. At page 62, an old miller, lying asleep behind some bushes; he has evidently been tipsy and from the date on a stone to the left, we are led to suppose that he had been indulging too freely on the King’s birth-day, 4th June. The following is a copy of the cut. Two cows standing in a pool, under the shade of a _dyke-back_, on a warm day, page 74. In this cut Bewick has introduced a sketch of a magpie chased by a hawk, but saved from the talons of its pursuer by the timely interference of a couple of crows. Winter scene, of which the following is a copy, at page 78. Some boys have made a large snow man, which excites the special wonderment of a horse; and Bewick, to give the subject a moral application, has added “_Esto perpetua!_” at the bottom of the cut: the great work of the little men, however they may admire it, and wish for its endurance, will be dissolved on the first thaw. At page 97 the appearance of mist and rain is well expressed; and in the cut of a poacher tracking a hare, the snow is no less naturally represented. At page 157, a man riding with a _howdy_--a midwife--behind him, part of the cut appears covered with a leaf. Bewick once being asked the meaning of this, said that “it was done to indicate that the scene which was to follow required to be concealed.” At page 194 we perceive a full-fed old churl hanging his cat; at page 226, a hen attacking a dog; and at page 281, two cocks fighting,--all three excellent of their kind.

Bewick’s humour occasionally verges on positive grossness, and a _glaring_ instance of his want of delicacy presents itself in the tail-piece at page 285. After the work was printed off Bewick became aware that the nakedness of a prominent part of his subject required to be covered, and one of his apprentices was employed to blacken it over with ink. In the next edition a plug was inserted in the block, and the representation of two bars of wood engraved upon it to hide the offensive part. The cut, however, even thus amended, is still extremely indelicate.[VII-58]

[Footnote VII-58: The subject of this cut is thus explained in
Brockett’s Glossary of North Country Words: “NEDDY, NETTY, a
certain place that will not bear a written explanation; but which
is _depicted to the very life_ in a tail-piece in the first
edition of Bewick’s Land Birds, p. 285. In the second edition a
bar is placed against the offending part of this broad display of
native humour.”]

The following is a copy of the head-piece at the commencement of the advertisement to the second volume. It represents an old man saying grace with closed eyes, while his cat avails herself of the opportunity of making free with his porridge. The Reverend Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedlington, happening to call on Bewick when he was finishing this cut, expressed his disapprobation of the subject, as having a tendency to ridicule the practice of an act of devotion; but Bewick denied that he had any such intention, and would not consent to omit the cut. He drew a distinction between the act and the performer; and though he might approve of saying grace before meat, he could not help laughing at one of the over-righteous, who, while craving a blessing with hypocritical grimace, and with eyes closed to outward things, loses a present good. The head-piece to the contents presents an excellent sketch of an old man going to market on a windy and rainy day. The old horse on which he is mounted has become restive, and the rider has both broken his stick and lost his hat. The horse seems determined not to move till it suits his own pleasure; and it is evident that the old man dare not get down to recover his hat, for, should he do so, encumbered as he is with a heavy basket over his left arm and an egg-pannier slung over his shoulder, he will not be able to remount.

The following are the principal tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himself in the first edition of the second volume of the Birds, 1804. A shooter with a gun at his back crossing a stream on long stilts, page 5. An old wooden-legged beggar gnawing a bone near the entrance to a gentleman’s house, and a dog beside him eagerly watching for the reversion, page 27. A dog with a kettle tied to his tail, pursued by boys,--a great hulking fellow, evidently a blacksmith, standing with folded arms enjoying the sport, page 56. A man crossing a frozen stream, with a branch of a tree between his legs, to support him should the ice happen to break, page 85. A monkey basting a goose that is seen roasting, page 263. An old woman with a pitcher, driving away some geese from a well, page 291. An old beggar-woman assailed by a gander, page 313.

One of the best of the tail-pieces subsequently inserted is that which occurs at the end of the description of the Moor-buzzard, volume I. in the editions of 1816 and 1821, and at page 31 in the edition of 1832. It represents two dyers carrying a tub between them by means of a cowl-staff; and the figures, Mr. Atkinson says, are portraits of two old men belonging to Ovingham,--“the one on the right being ‘auld Tommy Dobson of the Bleach Green,’ and the other ‘Mat. Carr.’”[VII-59] The action of the men is excellent, and their expression is in perfect accordance with the business in which they are engaged--to wit, carrying their tub full of _chemmerly_--chamber-lye--to the dye-house. The olfactory organs of both are evidently affected by the pungent odour of their load. It may be necessary to observe that the dyers of Ovingham had at that time a general reservoir in the village, to which most of the cottagers were contributors; but as each family had the privilege of supplying themselves from it with as much as they required for scouring and washing, it sometimes happened that the dyers found their trough empty, and were consequently obliged to solicit a supply from such persons as kept a private stock of their own. As they were both irritable old men, the phrase, “He’s like a _raised_ [enraged] dyer begging _chemmerly_,” became proverbial in Ovingham to denote a person in a passion. This cut, as I am informed by one of Bewick’s old pupils, was copied on the block and engraved by Luke Clennell from a water-colour drawing by Robert Johnson.

[Footnote VII-59: “Mr. Atkinson must have misunderstood Bewick, as
the old man’s name was George, not Matthew, Carr. He was
grandfather to Edward Willis, one of Bewick’s pupils, and to
George Stephenson, the celebrated engineer. Matthew Carr was a
tailor, who lived and died at Righton, in Durham.”--JNO. JACKSON.]

When the second volume of the History of British Birds was published, in 1804, Bewick had reached his fiftieth year; but though his powers as a wood engraver continued for long afterwards unimpaired, yet he subsequently produced nothing to extend his fame. The retouching of the blocks for the repeated editions of the Quadrupeds and the Birds, and the engraving of new cuts for the latter work, occupied a considerable part of his time. He also engraved, by himself and pupils, several cuts for different works, but they are generally such as add nothing to his reputation. Bewick never engraved with pleasure from another person’s drawing; in large cuts, consisting chiefly of human figures, he did not excel. His excellence consisted in the representation of animals and in landscape. The Fables, which had been projected previous to 1795, also occasionally occupied his attention. This work, which first appeared in 1818, was by no means so favourably received as the Quadrupeds and the Birds; and several of Bewick’s greatest admirers, who had been led to expect something better, openly expressed their disappointment. Dr. Dibdin, speaking of the Fables, says, “It would be a species of _scandalum magnatum_ to depreciate any production connected with the name of Bewick; but I will fearlessly and honestly aver that his Æsop disappointed me; the more so, as his Birds and Beasts are volumes perfectly classical of their kind.” The disappointment, however, that was felt with respect to this work resulted perhaps rather from people expecting too much than from any deficiency in the cuts as _illustrations of Fables_. There is a great difference between representing birds and beasts in their natural character, and representing them as actors in imaginary scenes. We do not regard the cock and the fox holding an imaginary conversation, however ably represented, with the interest with which we look upon each when faithfully depicted in its proper character. The tail-piece of the bitch seeing her drowned puppies, at page 364 of the Quadrupeds, edition 1824, is far more interesting than any cut illustrative of a fable in Æsop;--we at once feel its truth, and admire it, because it is natural. Birds and beasts represented as performing human characters can never interest so much as when naturally depicted in their own. Such cuts may display great fancy and much skill on the part of the artist, but they never can excite true feeling. The martyr Cock Robin, killed by that malicious archer the Sparrow, is not so interesting as plain Robin Redbreast picking up crumbs at a cottage-door in the snow:--

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Whatever may be the merits or defects of the cuts in those Fables, Bewick most certainly had very little to do with them; for by far the greater number were designed by Robert Johnson, and engraved by W. W. Temple and William Harvey, while yet in their apprenticeship. In the whole volume there are not more than three of the largest cuts engraved by Bewick himself.[VII-60] The tail-pieces in this work will not bear a comparison with those in the Birds; the subjects are often both trite and tamely treated; the devil and the gallows--Bewick’s two stock-pieces--occur rather too frequently, considering that the book is chiefly intended for the improvement of young minds; and in many instances nature has been sacrificed in order that the moral might be obvious.

[Footnote VII-60: The cuts engraved by Bewick himself are: a
tail-piece (a Cow standing under some bushes) to “The Two Frogs,”
page 200. The fable of “The Deer and the Lion,” page 315. “Waiting
for Death,” page 338. He also engraved the figure of the _Lion_ in
the fable of “The Lion and the four Bulls,” page 89 (see cut at
our page 480). The Man, Crow, and Sheep in the fable of the “Eagle
and the Crow,” of which we give the original cut. The Man and two
Birds in the fable of “The Husbandman and the Stork.”]

The letter-press was entirely selected and arranged by Bewick himself, and one or two of the fables were of his own writing. Though an excellent illustrator of Natural History, Bewick is but an indifferent fabulist.[VII-61] Though the work is professedly intended for the instruction of the young, there are certainly a few tail-pieces introduced for the _entertainment_ of the more advanced in years; and of this kind is the old beggar and his trull lying asleep, and a bull looking over a rail at them. The explanation of this subject would certainly have little tendency to improve young minds. Bewick, though very fond of introducing the devil in his cuts to frighten the wicked, does not appear to have been willing that a ranting preacher should in his discourses avail himself of the same character, though to effect the same purpose, as we learn from the following anecdote related by Mr. Atkinson. “Cant and hypocrisy he (Bewick) very much disliked. A ranter took up his abode near Cherry-burn, and used daily to horrify the country people with very familiar details of ultra-stygian proceedings. Bewick went to hear him, and after listening patiently for some time to a blasphemous recital of such horrors, at which the poor people were gaping with affright, he got behind the holder-forth, and pinching his elbow, addressed him when he turned round with great solemnity: ‘Now then thou seems to know a great deal about the devil, and has been frightening us a long while about him: can thou tell me whether he wears his own hair or a wig?’”--This is a bad joke;--the query might have been retorted with effect. The engraver, it seems, might introduce his Satanic majesty _ad libitum_ in his cuts; but when a ranting preacher takes the same liberty in his discourses, he is called upon to give proof of personal acquaintance.

[Footnote VII-61: The fable of the Ship Dog is one of those
written by Bewick.]

Bewick’s morality was rather rigid than cheerful; and he was but too prone to think uncharitably of others, whose conduct and motives, when weighed in the scales of impartial justice, were perhaps as correct and as pure as his own. His good men are often represented as somewhat cold, selfish individuals, with little sympathy for the more unfortunate of their species, whose errors are as often the result of ignorance as of a positively vicious character. As a moralist, he was accustomed to look at the dark rather than the bright side of human nature, and hence his tendency to brand those with whom he might differ in opinion as fools and knaves. One of the fables, written by himself, was objected to by the printer, the late Mr. E. Walker, and at his request it was omitted. We give a copy of the cut intended for it. The world is represented as having lost its balance, and legions of his favourite devils are seen hurled about in a confused vortex. The fable, it is said, was intended as a satire on the ministerial politics of the time. A thumb-mark is seen at the upper end of what is intended to represent a piece of paper forming part of the page of a Bible pasted across the cut. A similar mark is to be found at page 175 of the Land Birds, first edition, 1797, and in the bill and receipt prefixed to the Fables, 1818-1823.

In a novel, entitled “Such is the World,” there is the following erroneous account of Bewick’s reason for affixing his thumb-mark to this bill.[VII-62] “Having completed his task to the entire satisfaction of his own mind, Mr. Bewick bethought him of engraving a frontispiece. But having some suspicion that the said frontispiece might be pirated by some of those corsairs who infest the ocean of literature, he resolved to put a mark on it, whereby all men might distinguish it as readily as a fisherman distinguishes a haddock[VII-63] from a cod-fish. Accordingly, he touched with his thumb the little black ball with which he was wont to ink his cuts, in order to take off proof impressions of his work: he then very deliberately pressed his thumb on the frontispiece which he was at that moment engraving, and cut the most beautiful image of the original, which he designated by the appropriate words ‘John Bewick, his mark.’” Had the writer looked at the “frontispiece,” as he calls it, he would have found “_Thomas_,” and not “_John_.” The conclusion of this account is a fair sample of its general accuracy. In a preliminary observation the author, with equal correctness, informs his readers that the work in which this “frontispiece” appeared was “a superb edition of _Gay’s_ Fables.”

[Footnote VII-62: Mr. Atkinson says that this account determined
Bewick to write a life of himself. It appears that he actually
completed such a work, but that his family at present decline to
publish it. [Mr. Jackson adds, “I engraved two portraits for it:
one was a portrait of the Rev. Wm. Turner, of Newcastle, the other
that of an engineer or millwright, at Morpeth, named Rastack, or
Raistick.”]]

[Footnote VII-63: “There is a tradition that the two black marks
on the opposite sides of the haddock were occasioned by St.
Peter’s thumb and fore-finger when he took the piece of money out
of the fish’s mouth to give it as a tribute to Cæsar.”]

Bewick’s _mark_ is, in fact, added to this bill merely as a jest; the mode which he took to authenticate the copies that were actually issued by himself, and not pilfered by any of the workmen employed about the printing-office,[VII-64] was to print at his own work-shop, in red ink from a copper-plate, a representation of a piece of sea-weed lying above the wood-cut which had previously been printed off at a printing-office. This mode of printing a copper-plate over a wood-cut was a part of one of the plans which he had devised to prevent the forgery of bank-notes.[VII-65]

[Footnote VII-64: Bewick’s suspicions in this respect were not
altogether groundless. Happening to go into a bookbinder’s shop in
Newcastle in 1818, he found a copy of his Fables, which had been
sent there to bind before the work had been issued to the public.
He claimed the book as his property, and carried it away; but the
name of the owner who had purchased it, knowing it to have been
dishonestly obtained, was not publicly divulged.]

[Footnote VII-65: About 1799 Bewick frequently corresponded with
Mr. Abraham Newland, cashier of the Bank of England, respecting a
plan which he had devised to prevent the forgery of bank notes. He
was offered a situation in the Bank to superintend the engraving
and printing of the notes, but he refused to leave Newcastle. The
notes of Ridley and Co.’s bank were for many years engraved and
printed under the superintendence of Bewick, who, after Mr.
Beilby’s retirement, still continued the business of copper-plate
engraving and printing, and for this purpose always kept presses
of his own.]

The first of the two following cuts, copied from his Fables, records the decease of Bewick’s mother, who died on the 20th of February 1785, aged 58; and the second that of his father, who died on the 15th of November in the same year, aged 70. The last event also marks the day on which he began to engrave the first cut intended for the Quadrupeds. This cut was the Arabian Camel, or Dromedary, and he had made very little progress with it when a messenger arrived from Cherry-burn to inform him of his father’s death.

Several years previous to his decease Bewick had devised an improvement, which consisted in printing a subject from two or more blocks,--not in the manner of chiaro-scuros, but in order to obtain a greater variety of _tint_, and a better effect than could be obtained, without great labour, in a cut printed in black ink from a single block. This improvement, which had been suggested by Papillon in 1768, Bewick proceeded to carry into effect. The subject which he made choice of to exemplify what he considered his original discovery, was an old horse waiting for death.[VII-66] He accordingly made the drawing on a large block consisting of four different pieces, and forthwith proceeded to engrave it. He however did not live to complete his intention; for even this block, which he meant merely for the first impression--the subject having to be completed by a second--remained unfinished at his decease.[VII-67] He had, however, finished it all with the exception of part of the horse’s head, and when in this state he had four impressions taken about a week before his death. It was on this occasion that he exclaimed, when the pressman handed him the proof, “I wish I was but twenty years younger!”

[Footnote VII-66: A small cut of the same subject, though with a
different back-ground, occurs as a tail-piece in the Fables,
1818-1823.]

[Footnote VII-67: The last _bird_ that Bewick engraved was the
Cream-coloured Plover, at page 383, vol. i. of the Birds, in the
edition of 1832. Several years previous to his death he had
projected a History of British Fishes, but very little progress
was made in the work. A few cuts of fishes were engraved, chiefly
by his pupils; that of the John Dory, an impression of which is
said to have been sold for a considerable sum, is one of those not
engraved by Bewick himself. As a work of art the value of an India
paper impression of the John Dory may be about twopence. This cut
is an early performance of Mr. Jackson’s, who also engraved, in
1823, about twenty of the additional tail-pieces in the last
edition of the Birds, 1832.]

This cut, with the head said to have been finished by another person, was published by Bewick’s son, Mr. Robert Elliott Bewick, in 1832. It is the largest cut that Bewick ever engraved,[VII-68] but having been left by him in an unfinished state, it would be impossible to say what he might have effected had he lived to work out his ideas, and unfair to judge of it as if it were a finished performance. It is, however, but just to remark, that the miserable appearance of the poor, worn-out, neglected animal, is represented with great feeling and truth,--excepting the head, which is disproportionately large and heavy,--and that the landscape displays Bewick’s usual fidelity in copying nature.

[Footnote VII-68: This cut is eleven inches and five-eighths wide
by eight inches and three-fourths high. It is entitled, “Waiting
for Death: Bewick’s last work, left unfinished, and intended to
have been completed by a series of impressions from separate
blocks printed over each other.”]

Bewick’s life affords a useful lesson to all who wish to attain distinction in art, and at the same time to preserve their independence. He diligently cultivated his talents, and never trusted to booksellers or designers for employment. He did not work according to the directions of others, but struck out a path for himself; and by diligently pursuing it according to the bent of his own feelings, he acquired both a competence with respect to worldly means and an ample reward of fame. The success of his works did not render him inattentive to business; and he was never tempted by the prospect of increasing wealth to indulge in expensive pleasures, nor to live in a manner which his circumstances did not warrant. What he had honestly earned he frugally husbanded; and, like a prudent man, made a provision for his old age. “The hand of the diligent,” says Solomon, “maketh rich.” This Bewick felt, and his life may be cited in the exemplification of the truth of the proverb. He acquired not indeed great wealth, but he attained a competence, and was grateful and contented. No favoured worshipper of Mammon, though possessed of millions obtained by “watching the turn of the market,” could say more.