MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 17 



was also engaged in another equally dangerous. 

 Having formed the resolution of curing a vicious 

 "runaway" horse belonging to my father, which 

 no one durst mount, I, however, took the oppor- 

 tunity, when out of sight of any of the family, to 

 do so. With my hand entwined in his mane, and 

 bare-backed, I set him a-going, and let him run 

 over "sykes" and burns, up hill and down hill, 

 until he was quite spent. In a short time I 

 discovered that, to make him run at all, he must 

 be whipt to it. At other times I swam him in the 

 river. This, and such like treatment, made him 

 look ill, and quite tamed him. 



I have often since shuddered at the thoughts of 

 doing these and such like desperate acts, and 

 wondered how I escaped ; but neither caution nor 

 fear had at that lime taken a place in the mind ; 

 on the contrary, any uncommon or frightful exploit 

 had charms in it that I could not resist. One of 

 these pranks, however, attracted the attention of 

 the neighbourhood, brought me into a great 

 dilemma, and occasioned me a severe- beating. 

 I engaged a constant associate, Josh. Liddell, 

 who was ever ready at my command to help 

 me, as soon as I communicated any design to 

 him. I had discovered two oxen in a little 

 savannah or bit of grazing ground, surrounded 

 with hazel and other bushes, near the brink of 

 the river. Thither we went in order to enjoy so 

 tempting a sight as to see them plunge over- 

 head into the flood. When all was ready, we 

 suddenly, with long branches in our hands, 

 sprang upon them from the bushes overhanging 

 the precipice, the danger of which they did not 



see ; and they were plunged, with such a delightful 



c 



