MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 121 



would see her buried at Ovingham, she proposed 

 to sing me a song. I thought this very strange, 

 and felt both sorrow and surprise at it ; but she 

 smiled at me, and began her song of " All Things 

 have but a Time/' I had heard the old song 

 before, and thought pretty well of it ; but her's was 

 a later and a very much better version of it. 



During this time I observed a great change in 

 the looks and deportment of my father. He had, 

 what is called, "never held up his head" since 

 the death of my mother ; and, upon my anxiously 

 pressing him to tell me what ailed him, he said 

 he had felt as if he were shot through from the 

 breast to the shoulders with a great pain that 

 hindered him from breathing freely. Upon my 

 mentioning medical assistance, he rejected it, and 

 told me, if I sent him any drugs, I might depend 

 upon it he would throw them all behind the fire. 

 He wandered about all summer alone, with a kind 

 of serious look, and took no pleasure in anything, 

 till near the i5th November, which, I understand, 

 was his birthday, and on which he completed his 

 yoth year, and on that day he died. He was 

 buried beside my mother and sister at Ovingham. 

 After this, I left off my walks to Cherryburn ; the 

 main attractions to it were gone ; and it became 

 a place the thoughts of which now raked up 

 sorrowful reflections in my mind. Some par- 

 ticulars respecting my father, and illustrative 

 of his character, may, perhaps, be thought not 

 uninteresting. I shall give a few of such as I 

 recollect them. In his person, he was a stout, 

 square-made, strong, and active man, and through 

 life was a pattern of health. I was told by some 

 of my aunts, who were older than he, that he was 



Q 



