36 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



pit shaft, I felt much distressed at seeing my 

 mother trembling- in great agitation of mind for 

 his safety and that of his lost associate. After 

 traversing through the old workings of the colliery 

 for a long time, so long, indeed, that it was 

 feared he had also lost himself, he found the 

 man alive, when, with his well-known thundering 

 voice, he called from the bottom of the shaft, 

 "all's well/' to the inexpressible joy of all who 

 crowded the pit's mouth. 



Another of our fell-side neighbours, Anthony 

 Liddell, was a man of a very singular character, 

 and was noticed as such by the whole neighbour- 

 hood ; but a full account of him would far exceed 

 the bounds I wish to set to my narrative. He 

 might, indeed, -be called the " village Hampden." 

 The whole cast of his character was formed by 

 the Bible, which he had read with attention, 

 through and through. Acts of Parliament which 

 appeared to him to clash with the laws laid down 

 in it, as the Word of God, he treated with con- 

 tempt. He maintained that the fowls of the air 

 and the fish of the sea were free for all men ; 

 consequently, game laws, or laws to protect the 

 fisheries, had no weight with him. He would 

 not, indeed, take a salmon out of the locks on 

 any account, but what he could catch with his 

 "click-hook," in the river, he deemed his own. 

 As to what he could do in shooting game, he was 

 so inexpert, that he afforded to sportsmen many a 

 hearty laugh at his awkwardness ; for he could 

 shoot none till he fixed a hay-fork in the ground 

 to rest his piece upon. Indeed, the very birds 

 themselves might, by a stretch of imagination, 

 be supposed also to laugh at him; but his de- 



