Jest and youthful Jollity,Sport that wrinkled Care derides,And Laughter holding both his sides,there can be little doubt that the two odes to Obscurity and Oblivion originated, joint compositions of Lloyd and Colman, in ridicule of Gray and Mason. They were published in a quarto pamphlet, with a vignette, in the title-page, of an ancient poet safely seated and playing on his harp; and at the end a tail-piece representing a modern poet in huge boots, flung from a mountain by his Pegasus into the sea, and losing his tie-wig in the fall.” The following is a fac-simile of the cut representing the poet’s fall. He seems to have been tolerably confident of himself, for, though the winged steed has no bridle, he is provided with a pair of formidable spurs.see textThe cuts in a collection of humorous pieces in verse, entitled “The Oxford Sausage,” 1764, are evidently by the same engraver, and almost every one of them affords an instance of “lowering.” At the foot of one of them, at page 89, the name “Lister” is seen; the subject is a bacchanalian figure mounted on a winged horse, which has undoubtedly been drawn from the same model as the Pegasus in Colman and Lloyd’s burlesque odes. In an edition of the471Sausage, printed in 1772, the name of “T. Lister” occurs on the title-page as one of the publishers, and as residing at Oxford. Although those cuts are generally deficient in effect, their execution is scarcely inferior to many of those in the work of Papillon; the portrait indeed of “Mrs. Dorothy Spreadbury, Inventress of the Oxford Sausage,” forming the frontispiece to the edition of 1772, is better executed than Monsieur Nicholas Caron’s votive portrait of Papillon, “the restorer of the art of wood engraving.”In 1763, a person named S. Watts engraved two or three large wood-cuts in outline, slightly shaded, after drawings by Luca Cambiaso. Impressions of those cuts are most frequently printed in a yellowish kind of ink. About the same time Watts also engraved, in a bold and free style, several small circular portraits of painters. In Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music, published in 1776, there are four wood-cuts; and at the bottom of the largest—Palestrini presenting his work on Music to the Pope—is the name of the engraver thus:T. Hodgson. Sculp.Dr. Dibdin, in noticing this cut, in his Preliminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Ornamental Printing, prefixed to his edition of the Typographical Antiquities, says that it was “done by Hodgson, the master of the celebrated Bewick.”VII.27If by this it is meant that Bewick was the apprentice of Hodgson, or that he obtained from Hodgson his knowledge of wood engraving, the assertion is incorrect. It is, however, almost certain that Bewick, when in London in 1776, was employed by Hodgson, as will be shown in its proper place.Having now given some account of wood engraving in its languishing state—occasionally showing symptoms of returning vigour, and then almost immediately sinking into its former state of depression—we at length arrive at an epoch from which its revival and progressive improvement may be safely dated. The person whose productions recalled public attention to the neglected art of wood engraving wassee text and caption472This distinguished wood engraver, whose works will be admired as long as truth and nature shall continue to charm, was born on the 10th or 11th of August, 1753, at Cherry-burn, in the county of Northumberland, but on the south side of the Tyne, about twelve miles westward of Newcastle.see text and captionTHE HOUSE IN WHICH BEWICK WAS BORN.His father rented a small land-sale colliery at Mickley-bank, in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, and it is said that when a boy the future wood engraver sometimes worked in the pit. At a proper age he was sent as a day-scholar to a school kept by the Rev. Christopher Gregson at Ovingham, on the opposite side of the Tyne. The Parsonage House, in which Mr. Gregson lived, is pleasantly situated on the edge of a sloping bank immediately above the river; and many reminiscences of the place are to be found in Bewick’s cuts; the gate at the entrance is introduced, with trifling variations, in three or four different subjects; and a person acquainted with the neighbourhood will easily recognise in his tail-pieces several other little local sketches of a similar kind. In the time of the Rev. James Birkett, Mr. Gregson’s successor, Ovingham school had the character of being one of the best private schools in the county; and several gentlemen, whose talents reflect credit on their teacher, received their education there. In the following cut, representing a view of Ovingham from the south-westward, the Parsonage House, with its garden sloping down to the Tyne, is perceived immediately to the right of the clump of large trees. The bank on which those trees grow is known as the473crow-tree bank. The following lines, descriptive of a view from the Parsonage House, are from “The School Boy,” a poem, by Thomas Maude, A.M., who received his early education at Ovingham under Mr. Birkett.see text and captionPARSONAGE AT OVINGHAM.“But can I sing thy simpler pleasures flown,LovedOvingham! and leave thechiefunknown,—Thyannual Fair, of every joy the mart,That drained my pocket, ay, and took my childish heart?Blest morn! how lightly from my bed I sprung,When in the blushing east thy beams were young;While every blithe co-tenant of the roomRose at a call, with cheeks of liveliest bloom.Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew,Each gay-frilled shirt, and jacket smartly new.Brief toilet ours! yet, on a morn like this,Five extra minutes were not deemed amiss.Fling back the casement!—Sun, propitious shine!How sweet your beams gild the clear-flowing Tyne,That winds beneath our master’s garden-brae,With broad bright mazes o’er its pebbly way.See Prudhoe! lovely in the morning beam:—Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam,Wafting fair-going folks across the stream.Look out! a bed of sweetness breathes below,Where many a rocket points its spire of snow;And from theCrow-tree Bankthe cawing soundOf sable troops incessant poured around!Well may each little bosom throb with joy!On such a morn, who would not be a boy?”Bewick’s school acquirements probably did not extend beyond English reading, writing, and arithmetic; for, though he knew a little474Latin, he does not appear to have ever received any instructions in that language. In a letter dated 18th April, 1803, addressed to Mr. Christopher Gregson,VII.28London, a son of his old master, introducing an artist of the name of Murphy, who had painted his portrait, Bewick humorously alludes to hisbeautywhen a boy, and to the state of his coat-sleeve, in consequence of his using it instead of a pocket-handkerchief. Bewick, it is to be observed, was very hard-featured, and much marked with the small-pox. After mentioning Mr. Murphy as “a man of worth, and a first-rate artist in the miniature line,” he thus proceeds: “I do not imagine, at your time of life, my dear friend, that you will be solicitous about forming new acquaintances; but it may not, perhaps, be putting you much out of the way to show any little civilities to Mr. Murphy during his stay in London. He has, on his own account, taken my portrait, and I dare say will be desirous to show you it the first opportunity: when you see it, you will no doubt conclude that T. B. is turningbonnyerandbonnyerVII.29in his old days; but indeed you cannothelp knowing this, and also that there weregreat indicationsof its turning out solong since. But if you have forgot our earliest youth, perhaps your brother P.VII.30may help you to remember what agreat beautyI was at that time, when the grey coat-sleeve wasglazedfrom the cuff towards the elbows.” The words printed in Italics are those that are underlined by Bewick himself.Bewick, having shown a taste for drawing, was placed by his father as an apprentice with Mr. Ralph Beilby, an engraver, living in Newcastle, to whom on the 1st of October 1767 he was bound for a term of seven years. Mr. Beilby was not a wood engraver; and his business in the copper-plate line was of a kind which did not allow of much scope for the display of artistic talent. He engraved copper-plates for books, when any by chance were offered to him; and he also executed brass-plates for doors, with the names of the owners handsomely filled up, after the manner of the old “niellos,” with black sealing-wax. He engraved crests and initials on steel and silver watch-seals; also on tea-spoons, sugar-tongs, and other articles of plate; and the engraving of numerals and ornaments, with the name of the maker, on clock-faces,—which were not then enamelled,—seems to have formed one of the chief branches of his very general business.VII.31475Bewick’s attention appears to have been first directed to wood engraving in consequence of his master having been employed by the late Dr. Charles Hutton, then a schoolmaster in Newcastle, to engrave on wood the diagrams for his Treatise on Mensuration. The printing of this work was commenced in 1768, and was completed in 1770. The engraving of the diagrams was committed to Bewick, who is said to have invented a graver with a fine groove at the point, which enabled him to cut the outlines by a single operation.see textThe above is a fac-simile of one of the earliest productions of Bewick in the art of wood engraving. The church is intended for that of St. Nicholas, Newcastle.Subsequently, and while he was still an apprentice, Bewick undoubtedly endeavoured to improve himself in wood engraving; but his progress does not appear to have been great, and his master had certainly very little work of this kind for him to do. He appears to have engraved a few bill-heads on wood; and it is not unlikely that the cuts in a little book entitled “Youth’s Instructive and Entertaining Story Teller,” first published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1774, were executed by him before the expiration of his apprenticeship.Bewick, at one period during his apprenticeship, paid ninepence a week for his lodgings in Newcastle, and usually received a brown loaf every week from Cherry-burn. “During his servitude,” says Mr. Atkinson, “he paid weekly visits to Cherry-burn, except when the river was so much swollen as to prevent his passage of it at Eltringham, when he vociferated his inquiries across the stream, and then returned to Newcastle.” This account of his being accustomed toshouthis enquiries476across the Tyne first appeared in a Memoir prefixed to the Select Fables, published by E. Charnley, 1820. Mr. William Bedlington, an old friend of Bewick, once asked him if it were true? “Babbles and nonsense!” was the reply. “It never happened but once, and that was when the river had suddenly swelled before I could reach the top of theallers,VII.32and yet folks are made to believe that I was in the habit of doing it.”On the expiration of his apprenticeship he returned to his father’s house at Cherry-burn, but still continued to work for Mr. Beilby. About this time he seems to have formed the resolution of applying himself exclusively in future to wood engraving, and with this view to have executed several cuts as specimens of his ability. In 1775 he received a premium of seven guineas from the Society of Arts for a cut of the Huntsman and the Old Hound, which he probably engraved when living at Cherry-burn after leaving Mr. Beilby.VII.33The following is a fac-simile of this cut, which was first printed in an edition of Gay’s Fables, published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1779. Mr. Henry Bohn, the publisher of the present edition, happening to be in possession of the original cut, it is annexed on the opposite page.see textIn 1776, when on a visit to some of his relations in Cumberland,VII.34he availed himself of the opportunity of visiting the Lakes; and in after-life477he used frequently to speak in terms of admiration of the beauty of the scenery, and of the neat appearance of the white-washed, slate-covered cottages on the banks of some of the lakes. His tour was made on foot, with a stick in his hand and a wallet at his back; and it has been supposed that in a tail-piece, to be found at page 177 of the first volume of his British Birds, first edition, 1797, he has introduced a sketch of himself in his travelling costume, drinking out of what he himself would have called theflipeof his hat. The figure has been copied in our ornamental letter T atpage 471.see textIn the same year, 1776, he went to London, where he arrived on the 1st of October. He certainly did not remain more than a twelvemonth in London,VII.35for in 1777 he returned to Newcastle, and entered into partnership with his former master, Mr. Ralph Beilby. Bewick—who does not appear to have been wishful to undeceive those who fancied that he was the person who rediscovered the “long-lost art of engraving on wood”VII.36—would never inform any of the good-natured friends, who fished for intelligence with the view of writing his life, of the works on which he was employed when in London. The faith of a believer in the story of Bewick’s re-discovering “the long-lost art” would have received too great a shock had he been told by Bewick himself that478on his arrival in London he found professors of the “long-lost art” regularly exercising their calling, and that with one of them he found employment.There is every reason to believe that Bewick, when in London, was chiefly employed by T. Hodgson, most likely the person who engraved the four cuts in Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music. It is at any rate certain that several cuts engraved by Bewick appeared in a little work entitled “A curious Hieroglyphick Bible,” printed by and for T. Hodgson, in George’s Court, St. John’s Lane, Clerkenwell.VII.37Proofs of three of the principal cuts are now lying before me. The subjects are: Adam and Eve, with the Deity seen in the clouds, forming the frontispiece; the Resurrection; and a cut representing a gentleman seated in an arm-chair, with four boys beside him: the border of this cut is of the same kind as that of the large cut of the Chillingham Bull engraved by Bewick in 1789. These proofs appear to have been presented by Bewick to an eminent painter, now dead, with whom either then, or at a subsequent period, he had become acquainted. Not one of Bewick’s biographers mentions those cuts, nor seems to have been aware of their existence. The two memoirs of Bewick, written by his “friends” G. C. Atkinson and John F. M. Dovaston,VII.38sufficiently demonstrate that neither of them had enjoyed his confidence in matters relative to his progress in the art of wood engraving.Mr. Atkinson, in his Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick, says that when in London he worked with a person of the name of Cole. Of this person, as a wood engraver, I have not been able to discover any trace. Bewick did not like London; and he always advised his former pupils and north-country friends to leave the “province covered with houses” as soon as they could, and return to the country to there enjoy the beauties of Nature, fresh air, and479content. In the letter to his old schoolfellow, Mr. Christopher Gregson, previously quoted, he thus expresses his opinion of London life. “Ever since you paid your last visit to the north, I have often been thinking upon you, and wishing that you wouldlap up, and leave the metropolis, to enjoy the fruits of your hard-earned industry on the banks of the Tyne, where you are so much respected, both on your own account and on that of those who are gone. Indeed, I wonder how you can think of turmoiling yourself to the end of the chapter, and let the opportunity slip of contemplating at your ease the beauties of Nature, so bountifully spread out to enlighten, to captivate, and to cheer the heart of man. For my part, I am still of the same mind that I was in when in London, and that is,I would rather be herding sheep on Mickley bank top than remain in London, although for doing so I was to be made the premier of England.” Bewick was truly acountryman; he felt that it was better “to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep;” for, though no person was capable of closer application to his art when within doors, he loved to spend his hours of relaxation in the open air, studying the character of beasts and birds in their natural state; and diligently noting those little incidents and traits of country life which give so great an interest to many of his tail-pieces. When a young man, he was fond of angling; and, like Roger Ascham, he “dearly loved a main of cocks.” When annoyed by street-walkers in London, he used to assume the air of a stupid countryman, and, in reply to their importunity, would ask, with an expression of stolid gravity, if they knew “Tommy Hummel o’ Prudhoe, Willy Eltringham o’ Hall-Yards, or Auld Laird Newton o’ Mickley?”VII.39He thus, without losing his temper, or showing any feeling of annoyance, soon got quit of those who wished to engage his attention, though sometimes not until he had received a hearty malediction for his stupidity.In 1777, on his return to Newcastle, he entered into partnership with Mr. Beilby; and his younger brother, John Bewick, who was then about seventeen years old, became their apprentice. From this time Bewick, though he continued to assist his partner in the other branches of their business,VII.40applied himself chiefly to engraving on480wood. The cuts in an edition of Gay’s Fables, 1779,VII.41and in an edition of Select Fables, 1784, both printed by T. Saint, Newcastle, were engraved by Bewick, who was probably assisted by his brother. Several of those cuts are well engraved, though by no means to be compared to his later works, executed when he had acquired greater knowledge of the art, and more confidence in his own powers. He evidently improved as his talents were exercised; for the cuts in the Select Fables, 1784, are generally much superior to those in Gay’s Fables, 1779; the animals are better drawn and engraved; the sketches of landscape in the back-grounds are more natural; and the engraving of the foliage of the trees and bushes is, not unfrequently, scarce inferior to that of his later productions. Such an attention to nature in this respect is not to be found in any wood-cuts of an earlier date. The following impressions from two of the original cuts in the Select Fables are fair specimens; one is interesting, as being Bewick’s first idea of a favourite vignette in his British Land481Birds; the other as his first treatment of the lion and the four bulls, afterwards repeated in his Quadrupeds. In the best cuts of the time of Durer and Holbein the foliage is generally neglected; the artists of that period merely give general forms of trees, without ever attending to that which contributes so much to their beauty. The merit of introducing this great improvement in wood engraving, and of depicting quadrupeds and birds in their natural forms, and with their characteristic expression, is undoubtedly due to Bewick. Though he was not the discoverer of the art of wood engraving, he certainly was the first who applied it with success to the delineation of animals, and to the natural representation of landscape and woodland scenery. He found for himself a path which no previous wood engraver had trodden, and in which none of his successors have gone beyond him. For several of the cuts in the Select Fables, Bewick was paid only nine shillings each.see textsee textIn 1789 he drew and engraved his large cut of the Chillingham Bull,VII.42which many persons suppose to be his master-piece; but though it is certainly well engraved, and the character of the animal is well expressed, yet as a wood engraving it will not bear a comparison with several of the cuts in his History of British Birds. The grass and the foliage of the trees are most beautifully expressed; but there is a want of variety in the more distant trees, and the bark of that in the fore-ground to the left is too rough. This exaggeration of the roughness of the bark of trees is also to be perceived in many of his other cuts. The style in which the bull is engraved is admirably adapted to express the texture of the short white hair of the animal; the dewlap, however, is not well represented, it appears to be stiff instead of flaccid and pendulous; and the lines intended for the hairs on its margin are toowiry. On a stone in the fore-ground he has introduced abitof cross-hatching, but not with good effect, for it causes the stone to look very much like an old scrubbing-brush. Bewick was not partial to cross-hatching, and it is seldom to be found in cuts of his engraving. He seems to have introduced it in this cut rather to show to those who knew anything of the matter that he could engrave such lines, than from an opinion that they were necessary, or in the slightest degree improved the cut. This is almost the only instance in which Bewick has introduced black lines crossing each other, and thus forming what is usually called “cross-hatchings.” From the commencement of his career as a wood engraver, he adopted a much more simple method of obtaining colour. He very justly considered, that, as impressions of wood-cuts are printed from lines engraved inrelief, the unengraved482surface of the block already represented the darkest colour that could be produced; and consequently, instead of labouring to produce colour in the same manner as the old wood engravers, he commenced upon colour or black, and proceeded fromdark to lightby means of lines cut in intaglio, and appearing white when in the impression, until his subject was completed. This great simplification of the old process was the result of his having to engrave his own drawings; for in drawing his subject on the wood he avoided all combinations of lines which to the designer are easy, but to the engraver difficult. In almost every one of his cuts the effect is produced by the simplest means. The colour which the old wood engravers obtained by means of cross-hatchings, Bewick obtained with much greater facility by means of single lines, and masses of black slightly intersected or broken with white.When only a few impressions of the Chillingham Bull had been taken, and before he had added his name, the block split. The pressmen, it is said, got tipsy over their work, and left the block lying on the window-sill exposed to the rays of the sun, which caused it to warp and split.VII.43About six impressions were taken on thin vellum before the accident occurred. Mr. Atkinson says that one of those impressions, which had formerly belonged to Mr. Beilby, Bewick’s partner, was sold in London for twenty pounds; A. Stothard, R.A., had one, as had also Mr. C. Nesbit.Towards the latter end of 1785 Bewick began to engrave the cuts for his General History of Quadrupeds, which was first printed in 1790.VII.44The descriptions were written by his partner, Mr. Beilby, and the cuts were all drawn and engraved by himself. The comparative excellence of those cuts, which, for the correct delineation of the animals and the natural character of theincidents, and the back-grounds, are greatly superior to anything of the kind that had previously appeared, insured a rapid sale for the work; a second edition was published in 1791, and a third in 1792.VII.45The great merit of those cuts consists not so much in their execution as in the spirited and natural manner in which they are drawn. Some of the animals, indeed, which he had not had an opportunity of seeing, and for which he had to depend on the previous engravings of others, are not correctly drawn. Among the most incorrect are the Bison, the483Zebu, the Buffalo, the Many-horned Sheep, the Gnu, and the Giraffe or Cameleopard.VII.46Even in some of our domestic quadrupeds he was not successful; the Horses are not well represented; and the very indifferent execution of the Common Bull and Cow, at page 19, edition 1790, is only redeemed by the interest of the back-grounds. In that of the Common Bull, the action of the bull seen chasing a man is most excellent; and in that of the Cow, the woman, with askeelon her head, and her petticoats tucked up behind, returning from milking, is evidently a sketch from nature. The Goats and the Dogs are the best of those cuts both in design and execution; and perhaps the very best of all the cuts in the first edition is that of the Cur Fox at page 270. The tail of the animal, which is too long, and is also incorrectly marked with black near the white tip, was subsequently altered.In the first edition the characteristic tail-pieces are comparatively few; and several of those which are merely ornamental, displaying neither imagination nor feeling, are copies of cuts which are frequent in books printed at Leipsic between 1770 and 1780, and which were probably engraved by Ungher, a German wood engraver of that period. Examples of such tasteless trifles are to be found at pages 9, 12, 18, 65, 110, 140, 201, 223, and 401. Ornaments of the same character occur in Heineken’s “Idée Générale d’une Collection complette d’Estampes,” Leipsic and Vienna, 1771. Bewick was unquestionably better acquainted with the history and progress of wood engraving than those who talk about the “long-lost art” were aware of. The first of the two following cuts is a fac-simile of a tail-piece which occurs in an edition of “Der Weiss Kunig,”VII.47printed at Vienna, 1775, and which Bewick has copied at page 144 of the first edition of the484Quadrupeds, 1790. The second, from one of the cuts illustrative of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 1569, designed by Virgil Solis,VII.48is copied in a tail-piece in the first volume of Bewick’s Birds, page 330, edition 1797.see textsee textThe following may be mentioned as the best of the tail-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, and as those which most decidedly display Bewick’s talent in depicting, without exaggeration, natural and humorous incidents. In this respect he has been excelled by no other artist either of past or present times. The Elephant, fore-shortened, at page 162; the Dog and Cat, 195; the Old Man crossing a ford, mounted on an old horse, which carries, in addition, two heavy sacks, 244; the Bear-ward, with his wife and companion, leading Bruin, and accompanied by his dancing-dogs,—a gallows seen in the distance, 256; a Fox, with Magpies flying after him, indicating his course to his pursuers, 265; Two unfeeling fellows enjoying the pleasure of hanging a dog,—a gibbet, seen in the distance, to denote that those who could thus quietly enjoy the dying struggles of a dog would not be unlikely to murder a man, 274; a Man eating his dinner with his dog sitting beside him, expecting his share, 285; Old Blind Man led by a dog, crossing a bridge of a single plank, and with the rail broken, in a storm of wind and rain, 320; a Mad Dog pursued by three men,—a feeble old woman directly in the dog’s way, 324; a Man with a bundle at his back, crossing a stream on stilts, 337; a winter piece,—a Man travelling in the snow, 339; a grim-visaged Old Man, accompanied by a cur-dog, driving an old sow, 371; Two Boys and an Ass on a common, 375; a Man leaping, by means of a pole, a stream, across which he has previously thrown his stick and bag, 391; a Man carrying a bundle of faggots on the ice, 395; a Wolf falling into a trap, 430; and Two Blind Fiddlers and a Boy, the last in the book, at 456. In this cut Bewick has represented the two blind fiddlers earnestly scraping away, although there is no one to listen to their strains; the bare-leggedtatty-headed boy who leads them, and the half-starved melancholy-looking dog at their heels, are in admirable keeping with the principal characters.On the next page is a copy of the cut of the Two Boys and the Ass, previously mentioned as occurring at page 375. This cut, beyond any other of the tail-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, perhaps affords the best specimen of Bewick’s peculiar talent of depicting such subjects; he faithfully represents Nature, and at the same time conveys a moral, which gives additional interest to the sketch. Though the ass remains immoveable, in spite of the application of485a branch of furze to his hind quarters, the young graceless who is mounted evidently enjoys his seat. The pleasure of the twain consists as much in havingcaughtan ass as in the prospect of aride.To such characters the stubborn ass frequently affords moreamusementthan a willing goer; they like to flog and thump a thing well, though it be but a gate-post. The gallows in the distance—a favouritein terroremobject with Bewick—suggests their ultimate destiny; and the cut, in the first edition, derives additionalpointfrom its situation among the animals found inNew South Wales,—the first shipment of convicts to Botany Bay having taken place about two years previous to the publication of the work. This cut, as well as many others in the book, affords an instance of lowering,—the light appearance of the distance is entirely effected by that process.see textThe subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds were enlarged by the addition of new matter and the insertion of several new cuts. Of these, with the exception of the Kyloe Ox,VII.49the tail-pieces are by far the best. The following are the principal cuts of animals that have been added since the first publication of the work; the pages annexed refer to the edition of 1824, the last that was published in Bewick’s life-time: the Arabian Horse, page 4,—the stallion, seen in the back-ground, has suffered a dismemberment since its first appearance;VII.50the Old English Road Horse, 9; the Improved Cart Horse, 14; the Kyloe Ox, 36; the Musk Bull, 49; the Black-faced, or Heath Ram, 56; Heath Ram of the Improved Breed, 57; The Cheviot Ram, 58; Tees-water Ram of the Old Breed, 60; Tees-water Ram, Improved Breed, 61; the American Elk, 125; Sow of the Improved Breed, 164; Sow486of the Chinese Breed, 166; Head of a Hippopotamus, (engraved by W. W. Temple,) 185; Indian Bear, 293; Polar, or Great White Bear, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 295; the Spotted Hyena, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 301; the Ban-dog, 338; the Irish Greyhound, 340; the Harrier, 347; Spotted Bavy, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 379; the Grey Squirrel, 387; the Long-tailed Squirrel, 396; the Jerboa, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 397; the Musquash, or Musk Beaver, 416; the Mouse, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 424; the Short-eared Bat, 513; the Long-eared Bat, 515; the Ternate Bat, 518; the Wombach, 523; and the Ornithorhynchus Paradoxicus, 525. The cut of the animal called the Thick-nosed Tapiir, at page 139 of the first edition, is transposed to page 381 of the last edition, and there described under the name of the Capibara: it is probably intended for the Coypu rat, a specimen of which is at present in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, Regent’s Park. Bewick was a regular visitor of all the wild-beast shows that came to Newcastle, and availed himself of every opportunity to obtain drawings from living animals.see textThe tail-pieces introduced in subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds generally display more humour and not less talent in representing natural objects than those contained in the first. In the annexed cut of a sour-visaged old fellow going with corn to the mill, we have an exemplification of cruelty not unworthy of Hogarth.VII.51The over-laden,487half-starved old horse,—broken-kneed, greasy-heeled, and evidently troubled with the string-halt, as is indicated by the action of theoffhind-leg,—hesitates to descend the brae, at the foot of which there is a stream, and the old brute on his back urges him forward byworkinghim, as jockeys say, with the halter, and beating him with his stick. In the distance, Bewick, as is usual with him when he gives a sketch of cruelty or knavery, has introduced a gallows. The miserable appearance of the poor animal is not a little increased by the nakedness of his hind quarters; his stump of a tail is so short that it will not even serve as acatchfor the crupper ortail-band.see textIn 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 thesentimentwhich 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 and488weakly 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.see textThe 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 firmgripof 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 anew readingof January and May,—he an old travelling beggar, and she a young slut with her heels peeping, or rather staring, through her stockings.see textMr. 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, the489latter 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 thatI am the man.490“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 thisweaving of wordsI 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.53The 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 pretensions491to 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.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.54Before saying anything further on this subject, it seems492necessary to give the following passage from Mr. Atkinson’s Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick. “With regard to the circumstance that theBritish 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, andLesser Tern:VII.55he 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.”Though it is evident that Bewick meant here simply to assert that all thefiguresof thebirds, except the few which he mentions, were entirely engraved by himself, yet his biographer always speaks as ifevery oneof 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 cutsVII.56as affording favourable493instances of Bewick’s manner of representing water, althoughnot oneof 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.see textThough three of the best specimens of Bewick’s talents as a designer and engraver on wood—the Bittern, the Wood-cock, and the Common DuckVII.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 of494foliage, 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.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 bothdrawn and engraveda 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 represent495nature; 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.see textOur 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 this496respect, and no wood engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere effect.see textAmong 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 1821.497EDITIONSVOLUME I17971821PAGEPAGEBoughs and Bird’s-nest, drawn and engraved by Charlton Nesbit, prefaceiiSportsman 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 Bewick26xxviiiHorse running away with boys in the cart, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick82146Fox and Bird, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick159140Winter piece, thegeldard, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick162160EDITIONSVOLUME II18041821PAGEPAGETwo Old Soldiers, “the Honours of War,” drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick, introductionvviiMan creeping along the branch of a tree to cross a stream, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell363Old Fisherman, with a leister, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell2338The Broken Branch, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick3141Old Man watching his fishing-lines in the rain, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick4148Man angling, his coat-skirts pinned up, engraved by L. Clennell4657Old Anglerfettlinghis hooks, engraved by L. Clennell5097Partridge shooting, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell82105Woman 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. Clennell94262River scene, engraved by L. Clennell107132Coast scene, engraved by H. Hole123124Coast scene, moonlight, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell125122Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole144142Beggar and Mastiff, engraved L. Clennell160207Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick161151Burying-ground, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell166237Man and Cow, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick173161Tinker and his Wife, windy day, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole176148Winter piece, skating, drawn by R. Johnson engraved by Bewick180202Man on a rock, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell182177Icebergs, Ship frozen up, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell188156Sea piece, moonlight, engraved by L. Clennell194190Tired Sportsman, engraved by L. Clennell202245The Glutton, engraved by L. Clennell211195Sea piece, engraved by L. Clennell215197Runic Pillar, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by John Johnson220342Esquimaux and Canoe, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell230211Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell238306Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell240218Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick245220Man and Dog, engraved by H. Hole251228Geese going home, engraved by L. Clennell271260Boys sailing a Ship, engraved by L. Clennell282268Old Man and a Horse, going to market with two sacks full of geese286247Boys riding on gravestones, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell304323498Man smoking, engraved by L. Clennell337303Pumping water on a weak leg, engraved by L. Clennell348304Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell359314Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell366242Sea 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, volumeI.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 volumeI.: 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 manwatering, 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 that499he had been indulging too freely ontheKing’s birth-day, 4th June. The following is a copy of the cut.see textTwo cows standing in a pool, under the shade of adyke-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.see textAt 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 ahowdy—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.500Bewick’s humour occasionally verges on positive grossness, and aglaringinstance 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.58The 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 as501he is with a heavy basket over his left arm and an egg-pannier slung over his shoulder, he will not be able to remount.see textThe 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.59The 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 ofchemmerly—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 araised[enraged] dyer beggingchemmerly,” 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.When the second volume of the History of British Birds was published,502in 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 ofscandalum magnatumto 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 asillustrations 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:—
Jest and youthful Jollity,Sport that wrinkled Care derides,And Laughter holding both his sides,
Jest and youthful Jollity,
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides,
there can be little doubt that the two odes to Obscurity and Oblivion originated, joint compositions of Lloyd and Colman, in ridicule of Gray and Mason. They were published in a quarto pamphlet, with a vignette, in the title-page, of an ancient poet safely seated and playing on his harp; and at the end a tail-piece representing a modern poet in huge boots, flung from a mountain by his Pegasus into the sea, and losing his tie-wig in the fall.” The following is a fac-simile of the cut representing the poet’s fall. He seems to have been tolerably confident of himself, for, though the winged steed has no bridle, he is provided with a pair of formidable spurs.
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The cuts in a collection of humorous pieces in verse, entitled “The Oxford Sausage,” 1764, are evidently by the same engraver, and almost every one of them affords an instance of “lowering.” At the foot of one of them, at page 89, the name “Lister” is seen; the subject is a bacchanalian figure mounted on a winged horse, which has undoubtedly been drawn from the same model as the Pegasus in Colman and Lloyd’s burlesque odes. In an edition of the471Sausage, printed in 1772, the name of “T. Lister” occurs on the title-page as one of the publishers, and as residing at Oxford. Although those cuts are generally deficient in effect, their execution is scarcely inferior to many of those in the work of Papillon; the portrait indeed of “Mrs. Dorothy Spreadbury, Inventress of the Oxford Sausage,” forming the frontispiece to the edition of 1772, is better executed than Monsieur Nicholas Caron’s votive portrait of Papillon, “the restorer of the art of wood engraving.”
In 1763, a person named S. Watts engraved two or three large wood-cuts in outline, slightly shaded, after drawings by Luca Cambiaso. Impressions of those cuts are most frequently printed in a yellowish kind of ink. About the same time Watts also engraved, in a bold and free style, several small circular portraits of painters. In Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music, published in 1776, there are four wood-cuts; and at the bottom of the largest—Palestrini presenting his work on Music to the Pope—is the name of the engraver thus:T. Hodgson. Sculp.Dr. Dibdin, in noticing this cut, in his Preliminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Ornamental Printing, prefixed to his edition of the Typographical Antiquities, says that it was “done by Hodgson, the master of the celebrated Bewick.”VII.27If by this it is meant that Bewick was the apprentice of Hodgson, or that he obtained from Hodgson his knowledge of wood engraving, the assertion is incorrect. It is, however, almost certain that Bewick, when in London in 1776, was employed by Hodgson, as will be shown in its proper place.
Having now given some account of wood engraving in its languishing state—occasionally showing symptoms of returning vigour, and then almost immediately sinking into its former state of depression—we at length arrive at an epoch from which its revival and progressive improvement may be safely dated. The person whose productions recalled public attention to the neglected art of wood engraving was
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This distinguished wood engraver, whose works will be admired as long as truth and nature shall continue to charm, was born on the 10th or 11th of August, 1753, at Cherry-burn, in the county of Northumberland, but on the south side of the Tyne, about twelve miles westward of Newcastle.
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THE HOUSE IN WHICH BEWICK WAS BORN.
His father rented a small land-sale colliery at Mickley-bank, in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, and it is said that when a boy the future wood engraver sometimes worked in the pit. At a proper age he was sent as a day-scholar to a school kept by the Rev. Christopher Gregson at Ovingham, on the opposite side of the Tyne. The Parsonage House, in which Mr. Gregson lived, is pleasantly situated on the edge of a sloping bank immediately above the river; and many reminiscences of the place are to be found in Bewick’s cuts; the gate at the entrance is introduced, with trifling variations, in three or four different subjects; and a person acquainted with the neighbourhood will easily recognise in his tail-pieces several other little local sketches of a similar kind. In the time of the Rev. James Birkett, Mr. Gregson’s successor, Ovingham school had the character of being one of the best private schools in the county; and several gentlemen, whose talents reflect credit on their teacher, received their education there. In the following cut, representing a view of Ovingham from the south-westward, the Parsonage House, with its garden sloping down to the Tyne, is perceived immediately to the right of the clump of large trees. The bank on which those trees grow is known as the473crow-tree bank. The following lines, descriptive of a view from the Parsonage House, are from “The School Boy,” a poem, by Thomas Maude, A.M., who received his early education at Ovingham under Mr. Birkett.
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PARSONAGE AT OVINGHAM.
“But can I sing thy simpler pleasures flown,LovedOvingham! and leave thechiefunknown,—Thyannual Fair, of every joy the mart,That drained my pocket, ay, and took my childish heart?Blest morn! how lightly from my bed I sprung,When in the blushing east thy beams were young;While every blithe co-tenant of the roomRose at a call, with cheeks of liveliest bloom.Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew,Each gay-frilled shirt, and jacket smartly new.Brief toilet ours! yet, on a morn like this,Five extra minutes were not deemed amiss.Fling back the casement!—Sun, propitious shine!How sweet your beams gild the clear-flowing Tyne,That winds beneath our master’s garden-brae,With broad bright mazes o’er its pebbly way.See Prudhoe! lovely in the morning beam:—Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam,Wafting fair-going folks across the stream.Look out! a bed of sweetness breathes below,Where many a rocket points its spire of snow;And from theCrow-tree Bankthe cawing soundOf sable troops incessant poured around!Well may each little bosom throb with joy!On such a morn, who would not be a boy?”
“But can I sing thy simpler pleasures flown,
LovedOvingham! and leave thechiefunknown,—
Thyannual Fair, of every joy the mart,
That drained my pocket, ay, and took my childish heart?
Blest morn! how lightly from my bed I sprung,
When in the blushing east thy beams were young;
While every blithe co-tenant of the room
Rose at a call, with cheeks of liveliest bloom.
Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew,
Each gay-frilled shirt, and jacket smartly new.
Brief toilet ours! yet, on a morn like this,
Five extra minutes were not deemed amiss.
Fling back the casement!—Sun, propitious shine!
How sweet your beams gild the clear-flowing Tyne,
That winds beneath our master’s garden-brae,
With broad bright mazes o’er its pebbly way.
See Prudhoe! lovely in the morning beam:—Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam,Wafting fair-going folks across the stream.
See Prudhoe! lovely in the morning beam:—
Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam,
Wafting fair-going folks across the stream.
Look out! a bed of sweetness breathes below,
Where many a rocket points its spire of snow;
And from theCrow-tree Bankthe cawing sound
Of sable troops incessant poured around!
Well may each little bosom throb with joy!
On such a morn, who would not be a boy?”
Bewick’s school acquirements probably did not extend beyond English reading, writing, and arithmetic; for, though he knew a little474Latin, he does not appear to have ever received any instructions in that language. In a letter dated 18th April, 1803, addressed to Mr. Christopher Gregson,VII.28London, a son of his old master, introducing an artist of the name of Murphy, who had painted his portrait, Bewick humorously alludes to hisbeautywhen a boy, and to the state of his coat-sleeve, in consequence of his using it instead of a pocket-handkerchief. Bewick, it is to be observed, was very hard-featured, and much marked with the small-pox. After mentioning Mr. Murphy as “a man of worth, and a first-rate artist in the miniature line,” he thus proceeds: “I do not imagine, at your time of life, my dear friend, that you will be solicitous about forming new acquaintances; but it may not, perhaps, be putting you much out of the way to show any little civilities to Mr. Murphy during his stay in London. He has, on his own account, taken my portrait, and I dare say will be desirous to show you it the first opportunity: when you see it, you will no doubt conclude that T. B. is turningbonnyerandbonnyerVII.29in his old days; but indeed you cannothelp knowing this, and also that there weregreat indicationsof its turning out solong since. But if you have forgot our earliest youth, perhaps your brother P.VII.30may help you to remember what agreat beautyI was at that time, when the grey coat-sleeve wasglazedfrom the cuff towards the elbows.” The words printed in Italics are those that are underlined by Bewick himself.
Bewick, having shown a taste for drawing, was placed by his father as an apprentice with Mr. Ralph Beilby, an engraver, living in Newcastle, to whom on the 1st of October 1767 he was bound for a term of seven years. Mr. Beilby was not a wood engraver; and his business in the copper-plate line was of a kind which did not allow of much scope for the display of artistic talent. He engraved copper-plates for books, when any by chance were offered to him; and he also executed brass-plates for doors, with the names of the owners handsomely filled up, after the manner of the old “niellos,” with black sealing-wax. He engraved crests and initials on steel and silver watch-seals; also on tea-spoons, sugar-tongs, and other articles of plate; and the engraving of numerals and ornaments, with the name of the maker, on clock-faces,—which were not then enamelled,—seems to have formed one of the chief branches of his very general business.VII.31
Bewick’s attention appears to have been first directed to wood engraving in consequence of his master having been employed by the late Dr. Charles Hutton, then a schoolmaster in Newcastle, to engrave on wood the diagrams for his Treatise on Mensuration. The printing of this work was commenced in 1768, and was completed in 1770. The engraving of the diagrams was committed to Bewick, who is said to have invented a graver with a fine groove at the point, which enabled him to cut the outlines by a single operation.
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The above is a fac-simile of one of the earliest productions of Bewick in the art of wood engraving. The church is intended for that of St. Nicholas, Newcastle.
Subsequently, and while he was still an apprentice, Bewick undoubtedly endeavoured to improve himself in wood engraving; but his progress does not appear to have been great, and his master had certainly very little work of this kind for him to do. He appears to have engraved a few bill-heads on wood; and it is not unlikely that the cuts in a little book entitled “Youth’s Instructive and Entertaining Story Teller,” first published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1774, were executed by him before the expiration of his apprenticeship.
Bewick, at one period during his apprenticeship, paid ninepence a week for his lodgings in Newcastle, and usually received a brown loaf every week from Cherry-burn. “During his servitude,” says Mr. Atkinson, “he paid weekly visits to Cherry-burn, except when the river was so much swollen as to prevent his passage of it at Eltringham, when he vociferated his inquiries across the stream, and then returned to Newcastle.” This account of his being accustomed toshouthis enquiries476across the Tyne first appeared in a Memoir prefixed to the Select Fables, published by E. Charnley, 1820. Mr. William Bedlington, an old friend of Bewick, once asked him if it were true? “Babbles and nonsense!” was the reply. “It never happened but once, and that was when the river had suddenly swelled before I could reach the top of theallers,VII.32and yet folks are made to believe that I was in the habit of doing it.”
On the expiration of his apprenticeship he returned to his father’s house at Cherry-burn, but still continued to work for Mr. Beilby. About this time he seems to have formed the resolution of applying himself exclusively in future to wood engraving, and with this view to have executed several cuts as specimens of his ability. In 1775 he received a premium of seven guineas from the Society of Arts for a cut of the Huntsman and the Old Hound, which he probably engraved when living at Cherry-burn after leaving Mr. Beilby.VII.33The following is a fac-simile of this cut, which was first printed in an edition of Gay’s Fables, published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1779. Mr. Henry Bohn, the publisher of the present edition, happening to be in possession of the original cut, it is annexed on the opposite page.
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In 1776, when on a visit to some of his relations in Cumberland,VII.34he availed himself of the opportunity of visiting the Lakes; and in after-life477he used frequently to speak in terms of admiration of the beauty of the scenery, and of the neat appearance of the white-washed, slate-covered cottages on the banks of some of the lakes. His tour was made on foot, with a stick in his hand and a wallet at his back; and it has been supposed that in a tail-piece, to be found at page 177 of the first volume of his British Birds, first edition, 1797, he has introduced a sketch of himself in his travelling costume, drinking out of what he himself would have called theflipeof his hat. The figure has been copied in our ornamental letter T atpage 471.
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In the same year, 1776, he went to London, where he arrived on the 1st of October. He certainly did not remain more than a twelvemonth in London,VII.35for in 1777 he returned to Newcastle, and entered into partnership with his former master, Mr. Ralph Beilby. Bewick—who does not appear to have been wishful to undeceive those who fancied that he was the person who rediscovered the “long-lost art of engraving on wood”VII.36—would never inform any of the good-natured friends, who fished for intelligence with the view of writing his life, of the works on which he was employed when in London. The faith of a believer in the story of Bewick’s re-discovering “the long-lost art” would have received too great a shock had he been told by Bewick himself that478on his arrival in London he found professors of the “long-lost art” regularly exercising their calling, and that with one of them he found employment.
There is every reason to believe that Bewick, when in London, was chiefly employed by T. Hodgson, most likely the person who engraved the four cuts in Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music. It is at any rate certain that several cuts engraved by Bewick appeared in a little work entitled “A curious Hieroglyphick Bible,” printed by and for T. Hodgson, in George’s Court, St. John’s Lane, Clerkenwell.VII.37Proofs of three of the principal cuts are now lying before me. The subjects are: Adam and Eve, with the Deity seen in the clouds, forming the frontispiece; the Resurrection; and a cut representing a gentleman seated in an arm-chair, with four boys beside him: the border of this cut is of the same kind as that of the large cut of the Chillingham Bull engraved by Bewick in 1789. These proofs appear to have been presented by Bewick to an eminent painter, now dead, with whom either then, or at a subsequent period, he had become acquainted. Not one of Bewick’s biographers mentions those cuts, nor seems to have been aware of their existence. The two memoirs of Bewick, written by his “friends” G. C. Atkinson and John F. M. Dovaston,VII.38sufficiently demonstrate that neither of them had enjoyed his confidence in matters relative to his progress in the art of wood engraving.
Mr. Atkinson, in his Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick, says that when in London he worked with a person of the name of Cole. Of this person, as a wood engraver, I have not been able to discover any trace. Bewick did not like London; and he always advised his former pupils and north-country friends to leave the “province covered with houses” as soon as they could, and return to the country to there enjoy the beauties of Nature, fresh air, and479content. In the letter to his old schoolfellow, Mr. Christopher Gregson, previously quoted, he thus expresses his opinion of London life. “Ever since you paid your last visit to the north, I have often been thinking upon you, and wishing that you wouldlap up, and leave the metropolis, to enjoy the fruits of your hard-earned industry on the banks of the Tyne, where you are so much respected, both on your own account and on that of those who are gone. Indeed, I wonder how you can think of turmoiling yourself to the end of the chapter, and let the opportunity slip of contemplating at your ease the beauties of Nature, so bountifully spread out to enlighten, to captivate, and to cheer the heart of man. For my part, I am still of the same mind that I was in when in London, and that is,I would rather be herding sheep on Mickley bank top than remain in London, although for doing so I was to be made the premier of England.” Bewick was truly acountryman; he felt that it was better “to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep;” for, though no person was capable of closer application to his art when within doors, he loved to spend his hours of relaxation in the open air, studying the character of beasts and birds in their natural state; and diligently noting those little incidents and traits of country life which give so great an interest to many of his tail-pieces. When a young man, he was fond of angling; and, like Roger Ascham, he “dearly loved a main of cocks.” When annoyed by street-walkers in London, he used to assume the air of a stupid countryman, and, in reply to their importunity, would ask, with an expression of stolid gravity, if they knew “Tommy Hummel o’ Prudhoe, Willy Eltringham o’ Hall-Yards, or Auld Laird Newton o’ Mickley?”VII.39He thus, without losing his temper, or showing any feeling of annoyance, soon got quit of those who wished to engage his attention, though sometimes not until he had received a hearty malediction for his stupidity.
In 1777, on his return to Newcastle, he entered into partnership with Mr. Beilby; and his younger brother, John Bewick, who was then about seventeen years old, became their apprentice. From this time Bewick, though he continued to assist his partner in the other branches of their business,VII.40applied himself chiefly to engraving on480wood. The cuts in an edition of Gay’s Fables, 1779,VII.41and in an edition of Select Fables, 1784, both printed by T. Saint, Newcastle, were engraved by Bewick, who was probably assisted by his brother. Several of those cuts are well engraved, though by no means to be compared to his later works, executed when he had acquired greater knowledge of the art, and more confidence in his own powers. He evidently improved as his talents were exercised; for the cuts in the Select Fables, 1784, are generally much superior to those in Gay’s Fables, 1779; the animals are better drawn and engraved; the sketches of landscape in the back-grounds are more natural; and the engraving of the foliage of the trees and bushes is, not unfrequently, scarce inferior to that of his later productions. Such an attention to nature in this respect is not to be found in any wood-cuts of an earlier date. The following impressions from two of the original cuts in the Select Fables are fair specimens; one is interesting, as being Bewick’s first idea of a favourite vignette in his British Land481Birds; the other as his first treatment of the lion and the four bulls, afterwards repeated in his Quadrupeds. In the best cuts of the time of Durer and Holbein the foliage is generally neglected; the artists of that period merely give general forms of trees, without ever attending to that which contributes so much to their beauty. The merit of introducing this great improvement in wood engraving, and of depicting quadrupeds and birds in their natural forms, and with their characteristic expression, is undoubtedly due to Bewick. Though he was not the discoverer of the art of wood engraving, he certainly was the first who applied it with success to the delineation of animals, and to the natural representation of landscape and woodland scenery. He found for himself a path which no previous wood engraver had trodden, and in which none of his successors have gone beyond him. For several of the cuts in the Select Fables, Bewick was paid only nine shillings each.
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In 1789 he drew and engraved his large cut of the Chillingham Bull,VII.42which many persons suppose to be his master-piece; but though it is certainly well engraved, and the character of the animal is well expressed, yet as a wood engraving it will not bear a comparison with several of the cuts in his History of British Birds. The grass and the foliage of the trees are most beautifully expressed; but there is a want of variety in the more distant trees, and the bark of that in the fore-ground to the left is too rough. This exaggeration of the roughness of the bark of trees is also to be perceived in many of his other cuts. The style in which the bull is engraved is admirably adapted to express the texture of the short white hair of the animal; the dewlap, however, is not well represented, it appears to be stiff instead of flaccid and pendulous; and the lines intended for the hairs on its margin are toowiry. On a stone in the fore-ground he has introduced abitof cross-hatching, but not with good effect, for it causes the stone to look very much like an old scrubbing-brush. Bewick was not partial to cross-hatching, and it is seldom to be found in cuts of his engraving. He seems to have introduced it in this cut rather to show to those who knew anything of the matter that he could engrave such lines, than from an opinion that they were necessary, or in the slightest degree improved the cut. This is almost the only instance in which Bewick has introduced black lines crossing each other, and thus forming what is usually called “cross-hatchings.” From the commencement of his career as a wood engraver, he adopted a much more simple method of obtaining colour. He very justly considered, that, as impressions of wood-cuts are printed from lines engraved inrelief, the unengraved482surface of the block already represented the darkest colour that could be produced; and consequently, instead of labouring to produce colour in the same manner as the old wood engravers, he commenced upon colour or black, and proceeded fromdark to lightby means of lines cut in intaglio, and appearing white when in the impression, until his subject was completed. This great simplification of the old process was the result of his having to engrave his own drawings; for in drawing his subject on the wood he avoided all combinations of lines which to the designer are easy, but to the engraver difficult. In almost every one of his cuts the effect is produced by the simplest means. The colour which the old wood engravers obtained by means of cross-hatchings, Bewick obtained with much greater facility by means of single lines, and masses of black slightly intersected or broken with white.
When only a few impressions of the Chillingham Bull had been taken, and before he had added his name, the block split. The pressmen, it is said, got tipsy over their work, and left the block lying on the window-sill exposed to the rays of the sun, which caused it to warp and split.VII.43About six impressions were taken on thin vellum before the accident occurred. Mr. Atkinson says that one of those impressions, which had formerly belonged to Mr. Beilby, Bewick’s partner, was sold in London for twenty pounds; A. Stothard, R.A., had one, as had also Mr. C. Nesbit.
Towards the latter end of 1785 Bewick began to engrave the cuts for his General History of Quadrupeds, which was first printed in 1790.VII.44The descriptions were written by his partner, Mr. Beilby, and the cuts were all drawn and engraved by himself. The comparative excellence of those cuts, which, for the correct delineation of the animals and the natural character of theincidents, and the back-grounds, are greatly superior to anything of the kind that had previously appeared, insured a rapid sale for the work; a second edition was published in 1791, and a third in 1792.VII.45
The great merit of those cuts consists not so much in their execution as in the spirited and natural manner in which they are drawn. Some of the animals, indeed, which he had not had an opportunity of seeing, and for which he had to depend on the previous engravings of others, are not correctly drawn. Among the most incorrect are the Bison, the483Zebu, the Buffalo, the Many-horned Sheep, the Gnu, and the Giraffe or Cameleopard.VII.46Even in some of our domestic quadrupeds he was not successful; the Horses are not well represented; and the very indifferent execution of the Common Bull and Cow, at page 19, edition 1790, is only redeemed by the interest of the back-grounds. In that of the Common Bull, the action of the bull seen chasing a man is most excellent; and in that of the Cow, the woman, with askeelon her head, and her petticoats tucked up behind, returning from milking, is evidently a sketch from nature. The Goats and the Dogs are the best of those cuts both in design and execution; and perhaps the very best of all the cuts in the first edition is that of the Cur Fox at page 270. The tail of the animal, which is too long, and is also incorrectly marked with black near the white tip, was subsequently altered.
In the first edition the characteristic tail-pieces are comparatively few; and several of those which are merely ornamental, displaying neither imagination nor feeling, are copies of cuts which are frequent in books printed at Leipsic between 1770 and 1780, and which were probably engraved by Ungher, a German wood engraver of that period. Examples of such tasteless trifles are to be found at pages 9, 12, 18, 65, 110, 140, 201, 223, and 401. Ornaments of the same character occur in Heineken’s “Idée Générale d’une Collection complette d’Estampes,” Leipsic and Vienna, 1771. Bewick was unquestionably better acquainted with the history and progress of wood engraving than those who talk about the “long-lost art” were aware of. The first of the two following cuts is a fac-simile of a tail-piece which occurs in an edition of “Der Weiss Kunig,”VII.47printed at Vienna, 1775, and which Bewick has copied at page 144 of the first edition of the484Quadrupeds, 1790. The second, from one of the cuts illustrative of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 1569, designed by Virgil Solis,VII.48is copied in a tail-piece in the first volume of Bewick’s Birds, page 330, edition 1797.
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The following may be mentioned as the best of the tail-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, and as those which most decidedly display Bewick’s talent in depicting, without exaggeration, natural and humorous incidents. In this respect he has been excelled by no other artist either of past or present times. The Elephant, fore-shortened, at page 162; the Dog and Cat, 195; the Old Man crossing a ford, mounted on an old horse, which carries, in addition, two heavy sacks, 244; the Bear-ward, with his wife and companion, leading Bruin, and accompanied by his dancing-dogs,—a gallows seen in the distance, 256; a Fox, with Magpies flying after him, indicating his course to his pursuers, 265; Two unfeeling fellows enjoying the pleasure of hanging a dog,—a gibbet, seen in the distance, to denote that those who could thus quietly enjoy the dying struggles of a dog would not be unlikely to murder a man, 274; a Man eating his dinner with his dog sitting beside him, expecting his share, 285; Old Blind Man led by a dog, crossing a bridge of a single plank, and with the rail broken, in a storm of wind and rain, 320; a Mad Dog pursued by three men,—a feeble old woman directly in the dog’s way, 324; a Man with a bundle at his back, crossing a stream on stilts, 337; a winter piece,—a Man travelling in the snow, 339; a grim-visaged Old Man, accompanied by a cur-dog, driving an old sow, 371; Two Boys and an Ass on a common, 375; a Man leaping, by means of a pole, a stream, across which he has previously thrown his stick and bag, 391; a Man carrying a bundle of faggots on the ice, 395; a Wolf falling into a trap, 430; and Two Blind Fiddlers and a Boy, the last in the book, at 456. In this cut Bewick has represented the two blind fiddlers earnestly scraping away, although there is no one to listen to their strains; the bare-leggedtatty-headed boy who leads them, and the half-starved melancholy-looking dog at their heels, are in admirable keeping with the principal characters.
On the next page is a copy of the cut of the Two Boys and the Ass, previously mentioned as occurring at page 375. This cut, beyond any other of the tail-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, perhaps affords the best specimen of Bewick’s peculiar talent of depicting such subjects; he faithfully represents Nature, and at the same time conveys a moral, which gives additional interest to the sketch. Though the ass remains immoveable, in spite of the application of485a branch of furze to his hind quarters, the young graceless who is mounted evidently enjoys his seat. The pleasure of the twain consists as much in havingcaughtan ass as in the prospect of aride.To such characters the stubborn ass frequently affords moreamusementthan a willing goer; they like to flog and thump a thing well, though it be but a gate-post. The gallows in the distance—a favouritein terroremobject with Bewick—suggests their ultimate destiny; and the cut, in the first edition, derives additionalpointfrom its situation among the animals found inNew South Wales,—the first shipment of convicts to Botany Bay having taken place about two years previous to the publication of the work. This cut, as well as many others in the book, affords an instance of lowering,—the light appearance of the distance is entirely effected by that process.
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The subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds were enlarged by the addition of new matter and the insertion of several new cuts. Of these, with the exception of the Kyloe Ox,VII.49the tail-pieces are by far the best. The following are the principal cuts of animals that have been added since the first publication of the work; the pages annexed refer to the edition of 1824, the last that was published in Bewick’s life-time: the Arabian Horse, page 4,—the stallion, seen in the back-ground, has suffered a dismemberment since its first appearance;VII.50the Old English Road Horse, 9; the Improved Cart Horse, 14; the Kyloe Ox, 36; the Musk Bull, 49; the Black-faced, or Heath Ram, 56; Heath Ram of the Improved Breed, 57; The Cheviot Ram, 58; Tees-water Ram of the Old Breed, 60; Tees-water Ram, Improved Breed, 61; the American Elk, 125; Sow of the Improved Breed, 164; Sow486of the Chinese Breed, 166; Head of a Hippopotamus, (engraved by W. W. Temple,) 185; Indian Bear, 293; Polar, or Great White Bear, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 295; the Spotted Hyena, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 301; the Ban-dog, 338; the Irish Greyhound, 340; the Harrier, 347; Spotted Bavy, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 379; the Grey Squirrel, 387; the Long-tailed Squirrel, 396; the Jerboa, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 397; the Musquash, or Musk Beaver, 416; the Mouse, substituted for another cut of the same animal, 424; the Short-eared Bat, 513; the Long-eared Bat, 515; the Ternate Bat, 518; the Wombach, 523; and the Ornithorhynchus Paradoxicus, 525. The cut of the animal called the Thick-nosed Tapiir, at page 139 of the first edition, is transposed to page 381 of the last edition, and there described under the name of the Capibara: it is probably intended for the Coypu rat, a specimen of which is at present in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, Regent’s Park. Bewick was a regular visitor of all the wild-beast shows that came to Newcastle, and availed himself of every opportunity to obtain drawings from living animals.
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The tail-pieces introduced in subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds generally display more humour and not less talent in representing natural objects than those contained in the first. In the annexed cut of a sour-visaged old fellow going with corn to the mill, we have an exemplification of cruelty not unworthy of Hogarth.VII.51The over-laden,487half-starved old horse,—broken-kneed, greasy-heeled, and evidently troubled with the string-halt, as is indicated by the action of theoffhind-leg,—hesitates to descend the brae, at the foot of which there is a stream, and the old brute on his back urges him forward byworkinghim, as jockeys say, with the halter, and beating him with his stick. In the distance, Bewick, as is usual with him when he gives a sketch of cruelty or knavery, has introduced a gallows. The miserable appearance of the poor animal is not a little increased by the nakedness of his hind quarters; his stump of a tail is so short that it will not even serve as acatchfor the crupper ortail-band.
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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 thesentimentwhich 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 and488weakly 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.
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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 firmgripof 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 anew readingof January and May,—he an old travelling beggar, and she a young slut with her heels peeping, or rather staring, through her stockings.
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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, the489latter 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 thatI am the man.
“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 thisweaving of wordsI 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.53The 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 pretensions491to 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.
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.54Before saying anything further on this subject, it seems492necessary to give the following passage from Mr. Atkinson’s Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick. “With regard to the circumstance that theBritish 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, andLesser Tern:VII.55he 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.”
Though it is evident that Bewick meant here simply to assert that all thefiguresof thebirds, except the few which he mentions, were entirely engraved by himself, yet his biographer always speaks as ifevery oneof 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 cutsVII.56as affording favourable493instances of Bewick’s manner of representing water, althoughnot oneof 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.
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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 DuckVII.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 of494foliage, 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.
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 bothdrawn and engraveda 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 represent495nature; 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.
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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 this496respect, and no wood engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere effect.
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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.
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, volumeI.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 volumeI.: 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 manwatering, 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 that499he had been indulging too freely ontheKing’s birth-day, 4th June. The following is a copy of the cut.
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Two cows standing in a pool, under the shade of adyke-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.
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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 ahowdy—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 aglaringinstance 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
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 as501he is with a heavy basket over his left arm and an egg-pannier slung over his shoulder, he will not be able to remount.
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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.59The 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 ofchemmerly—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 araised[enraged] dyer beggingchemmerly,” 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.
When the second volume of the History of British Birds was published,502in 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 ofscandalum magnatumto 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 asillustrations 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:—