Ijife^ Genius, and Perso7ial Habits of BemcJc. 317 



about to stoop for his hurried evening bustle of alarm ? do ye 

 not (in the still and fine ear of imagination, your mind's ear) 

 keenly catch his rapid clink, clink, clink ? See the alert wren, 

 with cocked tail, just a- stoop for another flurring flight, still 

 wriggling, all a-song, with her kiss, kiss, kiss, churee, kiss, kiss. 

 Look at the clean, peeping, gliding, willow-wren, about to 

 pick an insect amid the green silk leaves, with her few and 

 feeble liquid notes. An the water ouzel have not a brown 

 umber cast on his back, I'm a pepper-corn, yea, a brewer's 

 horse. Do, now, repose your eye on the kingfisher; an he 

 be not alternately green and blue, there's no purchase in 

 money. Wonder (for, in honest sooth, ye well may) at the 

 mothiness of the ow4s, the sleekness of the falcons, the plump- 

 ness of the ducks, the neatness of the larks and Afotacillae. 

 Each bird, too, has his character most physiognomically 

 marked. The honest inoffensive ringdove; the work-job- 

 bing nuthatch; the poet blackcap; the parson crow; the 

 gay-crested silken counsellor chatterer; and the cunning, 

 rogue-attorney magpie ; though I am sorry to libel the poor 

 birds. The moral habits of each are as distinctly marked as 

 had he painted portraits of individuals for Lavater. Had he 

 done no more than draw the outlines of these figures on paper, 

 it would have ranked him among the most happy of draughts- 

 men ; but to have transferred these to wood, in the finest lines 

 of black and white, to have given light, shade, and almost 

 relief, is beyond all praise, but that of the silent and admiring 

 mind and heart. 



The first time I had a personal interview with my venerable 

 friend was at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Wednesday, Oct. 1. 

 1823, after perambulating the romantic regions of Cumberland 

 and Westmoreland, with my friend, John E. Bowman, Esq. 

 F.L.S. We had been told that he retired from his work- 

 bench on evenings to the " Blue Bell on the side," for the 

 purpose of reading the news. To this place we repaired, and 

 readily found ourselves in the presence of the great man. For 

 my part, so warm was my enthusiasm, that I could have 

 rushed into his arms, as into those of a parent or benefactor. 

 He was sitting by the fire in a large elbow-chair, smoking. 

 He received us most kindly, and in a very few^ minutes we felt 

 as old friends. He appeared a very large athletic man, then 

 in his seventy-first year, with thick, bushy, black hair, retain- 

 ing his sight so completely as to read aloud rapidly the smallest 

 type of a newspaper. He was dressed in very plain brown 

 clothes, but of good quality, with large flaps to his waistcoat, 

 grey woollen stockings, and large buckles. In his under-lip 

 he had a prodigious large quid of tobacco, and he leaned on 



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