Life^ Genius^ and Personal Habits of Bewick. 101 



his keen and comic eye fixed on the fern and licheny stones of 

 the mountain side, that slept in the warm and broad noon sun- 

 shine. " I ha* bin glowring a' the while," said he, " for a ring 

 ouzel (Zurdus torquatus) : this is the vara sort o' habitat for 

 him. Did ya ever see him alive ? " " Yes, Sir, at Llangollen 

 in Wales, and on the rugged heights of the Breidden moun- 

 tains, near my residence at Westfelton." " Pretty chiel," 

 continued he, turning his prodigious quid, " I wish I could 

 once see him." On arriving at Castleton, we ordered dinner 

 to be carried up to the ruins of PeveriPs Castle, at a consider- 

 able altitude immediately over the mouth or entrance of the 

 immense cavern, towards which we leisurely walked; and 

 having passed a ladies' boarding-school (" teachers of inutili- 

 ties, to say no worse," as he called them) very near it, his 

 merry mind elicited a broad joke. " What a place," cries he 

 (as their advertisements actually now word it), " for a lady to 

 open her seminary for the reception of pupils ! " He then 

 roared such a hearty' cachinnation, that the DeviPs Cavern re- 

 verberated from its windy intestines. It would be superfluous 

 here, and indeed onerous, to attempt any description of either 

 the exterior or interior of this dismal, extensive, and wonder- 

 ful cavern ; after the examination of which, we all clambered 

 up to the castle of the renowned Peveril of the Peak, amid the 

 weedy ruins of whose deserted halls, on the smooth green 

 sward, we picked our mutton bones, and quaffed our foaming 

 porter, with sweeter appetite, zest, and happiness, than is often 

 enjoyed at the banquet boards of those miscalled the great. 

 After dinner, the ladies collected fossil specimens in their 

 little baskets, or gathered bluebells, cranesbills, pansies, and 

 yellow violets ; twining flowers in their hair or summer-hats, 

 while the jolly old bawcock and I blew a delicious pipe of 

 Virginia. In a moment, with their lunular breasts, two ring- 

 ouzels alit among the gillyflowers on the wall ; and, the same 

 moment, Bewick silently grasped my arm, at once to suppress 

 motion and speech. After a minute's perking, preening, and 

 turning, they flew away ; on which, in ecstasy of delight, he 

 three times tenderly exclaimed, " Pretty darlings ! pretty dar- 

 lings ! pretty darlings ! " About this time he was dading 

 through the press the sixth edition of his Birds; and, though 

 a little anecdote connected therewith tells plaguily against me, 

 I feel it a duty to record it. He put into my hand a proof- 

 sheet and copy, for correction, as I had some hand in the 

 contents. But, independent of typographic errors, finding 

 several alterations, additions, and omissions, I became pettish ; 

 and, on his gently remonstrating, I furiously tore both proof 

 and copy to very tatters, trampled them on the floor, cursed 



H 3 



