314 Life, Genius, and Personal Habits of Bewick. 



faction of engraving his portrait, which, with those of some 

 of his friends, will hereafter embellish a somewhat voluminous 

 memoir of himself, which he amused his latter years in faith- 

 fully and copiously composing. He was frequently sent out 

 among the braes of Tyneside to cut birch rods ; and on one 

 of these occasions, being ordered to cut one for himself, he 

 Jugged into the school the most ponderous birch bough he 

 could cut, entirely divested of its twigs. In these truant 

 hours of sunshine, he would loiter along the river banks, 

 watching the sand-martens, hovering like butterflies about the 

 precipitous promontories, or the spreckled trout sporting 

 among the flies that streaked the dimpling waters beneath ; 

 and in these delicious moments, Nature was busy depositing 

 in his fine and fertile mind those seeds that have since pro- 

 duced such a plenitude of rich blossoms and wholesome fruits 

 to the healthy appetite of taste. His first tendency to draw- 

 ing was noticed by his chalking the floors and grave-stones 

 with all manner of fantastic figures, and by sketching the out- 

 line of any known character of the village, dogs, or horses, 

 which were instantly recognised as faithful portraits. The 

 halfpence he got were always laid out in chalk or coarse pen- 

 cils ; with which, when taken to church, he scrawled over the 

 ledges of the bench with ludicrous caricatures of the parson, 

 clerk, and the more prominent of the congregation. These 

 boards are now in the possession of the Duke of Northum- 

 berland, by whom they were replaced ; and when his chalk 

 was exhausted, he resorted to a pin or a nail as a substitute. 

 In his Memoir, of which I have heard him read a large, thick, 

 closely-written quarto, he relates, with playful spirit, many 

 anecdotes of his juvenile frolics. The church of Ovingham, 

 like most others, in the peaceful simplicity and good-will of 

 our ancestors, ere aristocratic pride had encroached on cha- 

 rity, was not parted into proud pews, but set out in plain and 

 parallel benches, like those of the friendly Quakers, where 

 rich and poor sat, clean and kindly, side by side, in honest 

 and inostentatious gratitude to their common Creator. During 

 service-time, which was tediously wearisome to the active mind 

 of young Bewick, it was one of his tricks to crawl under these 

 benches, and tickle the feet and neat ancles of the young 

 women. One, a more ticklish and winsome lass, on being so 

 handled, jumped up, exclaiming loudly to the parson, " Oh ! 

 Sir, guide (punish) Thomas Bewick :" upon which she got the 

 young wag tickled with a smart flogging. This lass, whose 

 name was Elliot, he afterwards married. In consequence of 

 this propensity to drawing, some liberal people, of whom, he 

 says, there are many in Newcastle, got him bound apprentice 



