>*' 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



WHEN, in 1884, the Executors of the late Miss 

 Isabella Bewick were good enough to entrust me 

 with the family papers which had come into 

 their custody, it was with the intention that, 

 in preparing a new edition of the "Memoir 

 of Thomas Bewick," published by- his eldest 

 daughter, Miss Jane Bewick, in 1862, I should, 

 if possible, make use of any information they 

 might afford. If mere bulk be taken as a 

 criterion, the Bewick MSS. might certainly 

 appear to offer an inexhaustible quarry ; and 

 I confess to having been somewhat dismayed 

 when I first inspected the various trunks, 

 boxes, cases, and brown paper parcels which 

 contained them. In the little house at No. 

 19, West Street, Gateshead, where the memory 

 of the old engraver had been so affectionately 

 cherished, almost everything seemed to have 



been religiously preserved, except order, which 



b 



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