MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 175 



with others relative to money matters, in which I 

 had been led away by my feelings, in lending 

 money to some, and in being bound for the pay- 

 ment of it for others, which, if I had been more 

 of his disposition, would not have happened ; and 

 I now clearly see and feel that, had it not been 

 for these imprudences, I should at this day, have 

 found myself in better and very different circum- 

 stances than those I am in. My partner, indeed, 

 often watched, and sometimes prevented me, from 

 engaging in such ruinous concerns, and would 

 remark to me that it was impossible to serve any 

 man who would not serve himself. After Mr. 

 Beilby was done with any concern in the pub- 

 lications, I found I could not go on pleasantly with 

 Mrs. Hodgson in the printing of the Quadrupeds, 

 and I therefore offered either to buy her share or 

 sell her mine, but this she declined doing, and 

 sometime after this, she sold hers to Messrs. 

 Longman and Co., London, and since that time, 

 the publication, shared in this way, has gone on 

 between us. 



As soon as Mr. Beilby left me, I was obliged, 

 from necessity, not choice, to commence author. 

 As soon as each bird was finished on the wood, 

 I set about describing it from my specimen, and 

 at the same time consulted every authority I could 

 meet with, to know what had been said ; and this, 

 together with what I knew from my own know- 

 ledge, were then compared ; and, in this way, I 

 finished as truly as I could the second volume of 

 the History of British Birds. I also examined the 

 first volume, with a view to correct its errors, and 

 to add many new figures and descriptions of them 

 to it. Although all this could not be done but 



