15i> Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the late T. Bewick. 



the presence of an All-wise Being that could be imagined, and very 

 often, has he urged to me the delight and satisfaction it must be 

 to all, who indulge in it. Every circumstance of her economy, was 

 subject of wonder and speculation to him, and he could scarcely im- 

 agine others to be so apathetic as not to admire. " Ah ! — I've wonder- 

 ed and wondered to see the little water spiders dancing so light on the 

 top of the water, and then — down they go in an instant, — its very won- 

 derful." 



Thus he concluded a lecture on Natural History which he had one 

 day been giving me, suggesting as he always did, a curious and amusing 

 subject for investigation and reflection. 



In conversations I had with him on the subject of rare birds which 

 had come under his observation, I was much surprised at his mention- 

 ing two, which have never, in the slightest degree, been looked on as 

 British. One of the Jacanas he was confident he had seen when a 

 young man (caught either by himself, or when he was present), in a 

 bog near Bywell ; and as a boy he remembered two birds being shot 

 on the ash trees in Ovingham church-yard, which he always thought 

 were Cardinal Grosbeaks. The latter, it is just possible, might have 

 escaped from confinement, in the other case that is out of the question. 

 This information, though only derived from the recollections of boy- 

 hood, is curious, as coming from a man of Bewick's observation. 



Cant and hypocrisy he very much disliked ; a ranter took up his 

 abode near Cherry Burn, and used daily to horrify the country people 

 with very familiar details of ultra stygian proceedings. Bewick went 

 to hear him, and after listening patiently for some time to a blasphe- 

 mous recital of such horrors, at which the poor people were gaping with 

 affright, he got behind the holder-forth, and pinching his elbow, ad- 

 dressed him when he turned round with great solemnity ; " No%v then 

 " thou seems to know a great deal about the devil, and has been fright- 

 " ening us a long while about him ! can thou tell me whether he wears 

 " his own hair or a wig ?" 



His strong sense and independence were such, that he never would 

 flatter or yield to any person, superior to him only in rank ; and conse- 



