THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1829. 



Art. I. Some Account of the Life, Genius^ and Personal Habits 

 of the late Thomas Betuick, the celebrated Artist and Engraver 

 on Wood. By his Friend John F. M. Dovaston, Esq. A.M., of 

 Westfelton, near Shrewsbury. 



" The social, friendly, honest man, 

 Whoe'er he be, 

 'Tis he fulfils great Nature's plan. 



And none but he." Burns. 



Sir, 



The brief and desultory remarks I am about to incor- 

 porate amid the congenial pages of your Magazine of Natural 

 History, arise from a fond and fertile memory of much con- 

 versation, and a long and frequent correspondence, with my 

 excellent and beloyed friend. Thomas Bewick, the celebrated 

 xylographer and illustrator of nature, was born at Cherry- 

 burne, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, August 

 12. 1753. His father, John Bewick, was a collier at Mickley 

 Bank ; and Thomas, with his brothers, was early immured in 

 that subterranean, laborious, and loathsome employment. I 

 haye heard him say that the remotest recollection of his power- 

 ful and tenacious memory was that of lying for hours on his 

 side between dismal strata of coal, by a glimmering and dirty 

 candle, plying the pick with his little hands; those hands 

 afterwards destined to elevate the arts, illustrate nature, and 

 promulgate her truths, to the delight and instruction of the 

 moral and intellectual world. He was, however, occasionally 

 sent to school, to the Rev. Christopher Gregson, minister of 

 Ovingham ; where, he says, he was treated with considerable 

 severity, but (as he added, with his constant good-humour, 

 and in his athletic dialect) " I sairly desarved it, for I ware a 

 muckle wild young dog." He always spoke with the deepest 

 gratitude of his master, and, before his death, had the satis- 



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