EDITOR'S PREFACE. xix 



in the Bewick manner. Why then should it 

 be a thing incredible that Johnson's original 

 water colours, of which Bewick himself says 

 that they could " hardly be equalled by any 

 artists," should now and then have been employed 

 as tailpieces, or that Clennell should have en- 

 graved those of them which, to experienced eyes, 

 reveal the traces of his graver ! But even if it 

 be admitted that some such assistance was ren- 

 dered, the fact implies no appreciable diminution 

 of Bewick's merit. Most of what his pupils 

 had learned, they had learned from him. He 

 was the originating and stimulating spirit of the 

 enterprise ; and his ow r n opulence of resource 

 was so large that a tailpiece more or less is 

 a matter of little moment to his reputation. 

 Moreover, it is not contended that his admit- 

 tedly gifted assistants had any part in what is, 

 after all, his signal achievement, his wonderfully 

 engraved birds, a branch of his work in which, 

 even to-day, he cannot be said to have been 

 surpassed. 



In concluding, it is only necessary to add that 

 the Memorial Edition, of which the present forms 

 the fifth volume, has been printed in Thomas 

 Bewick's own town, by his relatives, Messrs. 

 R. Ward and Sons, the owners of the original 

 blocks, to whom their duty has been a labour 



