152 Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the late T. Bewick. 



a life of himself, which he meant to embellish with likenesses of his 

 friends, drawn from memory or otherwise. This talent he possessed in 

 an eminent degree while a young man, and could, long after he had 

 seen persons, draw most striking likenesses of them. It was not con- 

 fined, howevei", to likenesses of his friends, as the origin of one of the 

 tail pieces shews. I allude to one where the devil is represented horse- 

 whipping a man under the gallows. A man had been long in the habit 

 of supplying his family with coals, when he discovered that he had been 

 the dupe of an ingenious system of peculation throughout. Bewick 

 drew a striking likeness of him in the above predicament, and, going to 

 the door, called him mildly into the house, and shewed him the picture, 

 with this pithy admonition, " Now then, if thou goes on as thou has 

 been doing wi' me, the devil will get thee, and tak thee to the gallows." 

 Of course the fellow slunk off somewhat disconcerted. 



In this case, neither his mental nor bodily powers were excited much, 

 but there were occasions when, under the influence of anger, he must 

 have been a rather formidable antagonist. In the commencement of his 

 celebrity he was obliged to visit London for the purpose of making ar- 

 rangements with some of the booksellers for the sale of his works. On 

 this occasion he met with much to irritate and disgust him. To a man 

 of his simplicity and integrity, the insincerity and hollowness so abundant 

 in our modern Babylon, could not fail to be offensive, and when to these 

 ingredients a small portion of impertinence was added, induced often 

 by his quiet unpresuming deportment, they formed an inflammable 

 mixture, which roused the lion to a display of his powers, more amusing 

 to the spectators than to the discomfited object of his wrath. 



The particulars of these rencontres, I do not now remember, only as 

 he detailed them they were generally accompanied by some quaint ad- 

 monition, which, if delivered with aught of the humour he infused on 

 relating them to me, must have produced a rather equivocal effect. 



His humanity was very extensive ; cherishing continually some 

 scheme for the improvement of his fellow creatures, or the better treat- 

 ment of animals intrusted to them. This it was which led him to pub- 

 lish the Fables, and in fact all his works. Some had this object 



