42 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



from Eltringham, and took up his abode in the 

 glass-house at Bill Quay, where he did any little 

 jobs in his power, and at the same time made 

 himself very agreeable and often very entertaining 

 to the workmen, who long remembered "Johnny 

 Chapman." From this place he set off on a visit 

 to a friend, at some distance, when he w r as rather 

 unwell, and not very able to undertake the journey, 

 and was found dead on the road between Morpeth 

 and Newcastle.* 



Before taking leave of these hardy inhabitants 

 of the fells and wastes, whose cottages were sur- 

 rounded with whins and heather, I must observe 

 that they always appeared to me, notwithstanding 

 their apparent poverty, to enjoy health and 

 happiness in a degree surpassing that of most 

 other men. Their daily fare was coarse bread, 

 potatoes, oatmeal porridge, and milk, only varied 

 by their boiling the pot with animal food, cab- 

 bage, or other succulent vegetables, and broth, 

 on Sundays. When tired at night with labour, 

 having few cares to perplex them, they lay down 

 and slept soundly, and arose refreshed from their 

 hard beds early in the morning. I have always 

 felt much pleasure in revisiting them, and, over 

 a tankard of ale, in listening to their discourse. 

 It was chiefly upon local biography, in which 

 they sometimes traced the pedigree of their 

 neighbours a long way back. When good eating 

 became the subject of their discourse, in telling 

 what they liked, one man would declare that 

 "over all fruit that grew he liked potatoes and 



[* " Thus far" says a note in the original MS " was written at 

 Tynemouth, 10 December, 1822."] 



