Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the late T. Bemck. 145 



pains in colouring a good edition of the Birds, which, if accurate and 

 unbroken, must be valuable. And Mr. Murray has, I am informed, 

 a fine copy of the edition on large drawing paper, which has been skilful- 

 ly coloured. I have a copy of the hundred on 4to, taken in 1825, 

 which in. fineness of impression, is curiously superior to any thing I 

 have seen : it is one of four remarkably fine copies which I saw at his 

 house in sheets : with the assistance of his daughter, and in cases of 

 any hesitation, of the old man himself, I compared each four prints 

 throughout, selecting the finest ; on the title-page I have his name 

 and declaration in evidence of its choiceness ; and here I would re- 

 mark that his conduct in this, and all transactions I have had with him, 

 was exceedingly liberal, and very much opposed to the closeness which 

 has been attributed to him. 



With regard to the circumstance that the British Birds, with very 

 few exceptions, were finished by his own hand, I have it in my 

 power to pledge myself. I had been a good deal surprised one day, 

 by hearing a gentleman assert, that very few of them were his own 

 work, all the easy parts being executed by his pupils. I saw him the 

 same day, and talking of his art, inquired if he permitted the assist- 

 ance of his apprentices in many cases ? He said " no, it had seldom 

 happened, and then they had injured the cuts very much." I inquired, 

 if he could remember any of them in which he had received assistance ? 

 he said *' Aye — I can soon tell you them," and, after a few minutes' 

 consideration, he made out with his daughter's assistance. The Whim- 

 brel, Tifted Duck, and Lesser Tern : he tried to recollect more, and 

 turning to his daughter, said, " Jane, honey, dost thou remember any 

 more ?" She considered a little, and said, " no, she did not," but that 

 "certainly there were not half a dozen in all ;" these we both pressed 

 him to do over again. " He intended it" he said, but alas ! this inten- 

 tion was prevented. In some cases, I am informed, he made his pupils 

 block out for him ; that is, furnished them with an outline, and let 

 them cut away the edges of the block to that line ; but as in this case, 

 the assistance rendered is much the same as that aiforded by a turner's 



