4 Life, Genius, and Personal Habits of Bewick-. 
hame singing to your mammies.” He was particularly fond 
of playing with little children, who, notwithstanding his bulky 
appearance, and extremely rough face, suffered themselves 
to come unto him; and among the numerous and ill-sorted 
contents of his capacious pockets, he generally (like the all- 
hearted Dandy Dinmont) had an apple, a whistle, or a bit of 
gingerbread, together with pencil ends, torn proofs, scraps of 
sketches, highly tinted with the yellow ooze of huge pigtail 
quids, in divers stages of mastication. 
Yet gentle, generous, and playful as he was, his’ personal 
strength and courage was prodigious: and notwithstanding 
his ardent feelings of humanity towards all animals, particu- 
larly dogs, horses, and birds, in defending many whereof he 
had drawn himself into scrapes ; yet, when his own safety was 
at stake, he could repel an attack with a vigorous heart and 
arm: for he told me, as how going into a tanyard, a great 
surly mastiff sprang upon him, and how he caught said mastiff 
by the hind legs, and * fetched him, wi his cudgel, such a 
hell o’ a thwacker owre the lumbar vertebree, that sent him 
howling into a hovel.” 
My pleasantest time was at nights, when, without strangers, 
I enjoyed the full fiow of talk while smoking with my noble- 
hearted friend, and his son, Robert Elliot Bewick, a modest 
ingenious youth, remarkable for his surprising skill in playing 
on the Northumbrian pipes; and whose elegant taste and 
talent for drawing I cannot better praise than by calling him 
‘*a chip of the old block.” ‘The two younger daughters were 
interesting by their unobtrusive attention and courtesy, show- 
ing manners that give ease and grace to society, and kindness 
that cannot be mistaken. Of his eldest daughter, Jane, 
whom he called his right hand,” I feel it difficult to speak 
in print, lest even the gentlest truth offend her unaffected 
modesty; so resort to Tue Port, touching his Desdemona: — 
“ A maiden never bold ; 
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion 
Blush’d at herself: . . . . . . a maid 
That paragons description, and wild fame ; 
One that excels the quips of blazoning pens, 
And in the essential vesture of creation 
Does bear all excellency.”’ 
She was mistress of her father’s house, which she conducted 
with silent and quiet management, so that every thing seemed 
done by enchantment, without bustle or disturbance, and all 
without hurry or care. She corrected the press for his works, 
and saw to the getting them up; wrote his letters of business, 
and kept his house and workshops in order. Her greatest 
