Life, Genius, and Personal Habits of Bewick. 99 
books and prints of animals, joking her about her sweetheart ; 
and as he always rose very early to ‘* waak oot,” one morning, 
on the stairs, I asked Sally if the old gentleman had walked 
out. Yes, sir; ” said the good-humoured girl, * and a ver 
nice old gentleman he is.” I walked after him, and found him 
in a place they call the grove (a long, thin, narrow belt of 
stunted larches), playing with a group "of curly rosy children, 
for whom he was drawing funny figures on a painted bench, 
and telling them the names of birds, insects, and plants. 
Many of his opinions, though dropped at different times and 
places, I may as well group ) together ; ; and omit, in some de- 
gree, his peculiar dialect t, as difficult to express on paper, and 
awkward to those who knew him not; though, to my ear, it 
always seemed to give point, potency, and a sort of Doric 
beauty to his aphoristic truths, On my remarking that the 
pig-parsnep (Heracleum Sphondylium), or ‘hogweed, had lv ays 
been a great favourite with me, as being by far the best foliage 
for painters’ foreground, he not only Concumce: but ingeniously 
explained the reason. The hemlock and par sley -leaved plants, 
he said, were too minutely cut and divaricated ; and the but- 
ter-bur and docks too round and heavy: now, ve pig-parsnep 
uniting the lightness of the one with the strength of the other, 
became instantly pleasing to the eye of taste. He said, of all 
birds he thought the dove tribe most beautiful. Their olatiine 
presents every possible variety of the line of beauty ; their 
colours are brilliant and varied; their notes amorous and sooth- 
ing; their manners gentle ard affectionate ; their flight both 
rapid and graceful; and, in all times and nations, they have 
been emblems of peace, love, and fidelity. ‘They have, more- 
over, many qualities and habits exclusively peculiar to their 
tribe: they drink differently (by immersion), and have no gall. 
Of Lord Byron’s poetry he spoke with great disgust, saying, 
it teemed with less imagination, and more tr Seta in any quan- 
tity, than that of any other great poet; that power was the 
prominent feature of his mind, which he prostituted ; and the 
great failing of his heart was deptan ity, which he adorned. He 
thought dhe romances of Sir Walter Scott breathed very large 
and fr equent ¢ aspir ations of the genuine essence of poetry ; that 
his landscapes and figures were spirited and highly coloured 
painting, and his real characters the finest specimens of his- 
torical portraits. Paradise, he said, was of every man’s own 
making; all evil caused by the abuse of freewill ; happiness 
equally distributed, and in every one’s reach. ‘ Oh!” said 
he, ‘ this is a bonny world as God made it; but man makes a 
packhorse of Providence.” He held that innumerable things 
might be converted to our use that we ignorantly neglect : 
13 oY, 
