MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 63 



he considered every thing else as subordinate. The 

 success of his labours in this field he acknowledged, 

 but was unconscious of it till made aware by the 

 voluntary and unsought admiration of the world. 

 When the admired preface to his Fables first ap- 

 peared, letters from eminent men poured in upon 

 him, particularly from the University of Cambridge, 

 and one from the Bishop of Gloucester ; numerous 

 letters of thanks for the benefits he conferred on 

 the rising generation, from men of talent and 

 literary eminence, who were total strangers to him, 

 except through his works, but who admired his 

 modesty, his genius, his benevolence, his wit, his 

 ingenuity, and his genuine religious principles. 



" Frequently, as I walked with him along the 

 streets, it was gratifying to witness how much and 

 how generally his character and talents were re- 

 spected; particularly when many who bowed to 

 him differed totally from him in opinions, on a 

 subject that ought to conciliate, but far too often 

 sets little minds at inveterate hostility with grea* 

 ones. An amiable touch of character showed itsen 

 in the many ragged children who followed him for 

 halfipence, and would not leave him till he haa 

 imparted the customary largess. He turned to them 

 several times, while he was talking to me, saying, 

 ' Get awa', bairns, get awa ; I hae none for ye 

 the day* As they still kept dogging him, and 

 pulling at his coat, he turned into a shop, and 

 throwing down a tester, said, in his broad dialect 

 (which he neither affected to conceal, nor pretended 



