102 Lifr-i Genius, a?id Personal Habits of Bewick. 



them, and called the reviser a fool. All this while he walked 

 deliberately to and fro ; but, on seeing this magnanimous 

 exploit of my folly, he paused, and slowly (oh ! the devil take 

 his assumed slowness ! ) said, " Measter Dovaston, ye ha* ca'd 

 him a feool ye dinna ken ; I only ax, if he were here, what 

 might he ca' you ? " He did, indeed, ax me, and with an 

 edge ; for his just and gentle reproof was darted from one of 

 those significant smiles, more severe than the bitterest anger. 

 The young ladies were picking up the disjecta membra of these 

 unfortunate papers, and arranging them on the table, like the 

 pieces of a child's dissected map. " Na, na," said he, blow- 

 ing them off at one fell puff, like Boreas in a snow storm ; 

 " na, na ; as the daft callant thinks himseP sae clever, let him 

 e'en compose fresh copy ; " throwing a quire on the table, and 

 an old stumpie of a pen he had been using as a pipe-cleaner : 

 to which task I doggedly sat down, with the subdued feelings 

 of a chid schoolboy, having occasional recourse to the accursed 

 scraps ; while, through the window, I saw the glorious old 

 gentleman walking lustily down to the well, flourishing his 

 cudgel, in all the vigour of victory. My fair Northumbrian 

 friends (alas ! so many hundred miles remote from the hand 

 now writing it) will readily, on perusal, acknowledge the 

 minute truth with which I have let off this little miff; and 

 will, I trust, bear testimony to the accuracy of all my anec- 

 dotes ; which, so far from needing any colour, or even sharp- 

 ening, I am conscious appear best in their own native simpli- 

 city, when least adorned. Every body loved Bewick. All 

 animals loved him ; and frequently, o' mornings, I found him 

 in the inn-yard, among the dogs, ducks, or pigs, throwing them 

 pieces of biscuit, and talking to them, or to the boors beside 

 them, waiters, c^«j/-boys, or boots. He would pat Rosalind 

 on the neck, ask her how she liked her crazy master, and bid 

 the ostler bring her a bucket of water. " She has had enough, 

 Sir," said he. " Then bring her more," said Bewick. He did 

 so, and she drank part of it. " There," says he, " she will na 

 drink mair than her need, like you, or me, or my daft friend 

 here." 



Persons enamoured of Nature, though one of her volumi- 

 nous treasures may for a while be the favourite, seldom con- 

 fine their observance or admiration to that one exclusively ; 

 but, in their eager pursuit after the main object of their enthu- 

 siasm, glance oft aside on others of equal excitement or 

 beauty, that, in time and turn, come to an equal share of regard 

 and rapture. This was quite the case with Bewick, who, from 

 infancy, had contemplated, with adoration, whateyer the sun 

 illumined ; whether he lit up in serene splendour the ponder- 



