146 Mr. Aticinson's Sketch of the late T. Bewick. 



apprentice when he rounds off the heavy mass of wood, in readiness for 

 a more experienced hand, but not a line of whose performance remains 

 in the beautiful toy it becomes, it does not materially shake the authen- 

 ticity of the work in question. 



In 1825, one hundred copies of the Land and Water Birds, and the 

 few Foreign Birds, fourteen in number, were printed at £3. 3*. 

 sheets ; this contains all his birds but six ; the King DucJc, Harlequin 

 Duck, Vulture, blue-breasted JRobin, Reed Wren, and cream-coloured 

 Plover, which he engraved subsequently, in the order in which I give 

 them; of these, the Vulture siaA blue-breasted Robin are unique as British 

 Birds ; the former was shot on the south coast of England, and the 

 latter, which is now in the museum of the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, on the Town Moor, near Newcastle. 



The only specimen of lithography by Bewick, is a sketch he made 

 in Edinburgh for Ballantine and Robertson, in 1823, to illustrate 

 the long plunging pace of a horse, sometimes called Cadger's trot ; it is 

 a highly spirited thing. His engravings on copper are not many. One 

 or two prints of prize cattle for Mr. Spearman and Mr. Hall, and 

 some illustrations to Reay^s Shooter's Guide, with the engravings for 

 Consetfs Tour, by Sir H. Liddell, and some Bank Notes, being all 

 that I know of. 



The Quadrupeds and Birds gave quite a new era to the publication 

 of school books ; before these appeared, it may be remembered what 

 hideous things were introduced to express the figure of even the com- 

 monest animal, and the editions of a school book then in use, entitled, 

 " Descriptions of 300 Animals," would, from the uncouth figures therein 

 represented, be now considered as quite a curiosity ; but in the present 

 books and prints for children, many of the figures may be easily traced 

 to those beautiful designs, which have gained for the subject of this 

 memoir, such deserved celebrity. 



As his works advanced in estimation, considerable wonder, not un- 

 mixed with incredulity, was evinced at their execution on wood ; they 

 so far surpassed all previous attempts in that way, that people were not 



