Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the late T. Bcwich. 155 



quently his language bore the same simple form to every one. A 

 person of high rank, so well known as a patron of the fine arts, called 

 one day to see him at his shop. He was at work before the window, 

 but turned round on his seat as his noble visitor entered the room, 

 and paid his respects in the following unsophisticated way — " How 

 do you do, sir ? and are ye quite well ? Sit down — sit down — how's 

 your father ?" 



This unceremonious kind of speech, which in most men would have 

 savoured very much of ignorance and incivility, to say nothing of un- 

 pardonable disrespect to a man of snch consequencee, came from him 

 in a manner so simple, with such kindness and cordiality of tone, that 

 the most fastidious and arrogant person could scarcely have been- of- 

 fended. 



As a back ground to the cut of the Magpie, he has introduced the car- 

 case of an old horse ; and to this, a tale is attached : a neighbour 

 wanted a horse to go to Newburn with, and borrowed an old favourite 

 of Bewick's father, under strict promise of good usage : he neglected 

 the conditions, and overworked the horse, which died soon after, and 

 my kind-hearted old friend used to step aside in going to school, to see 

 and shed a tear over the old horse. In his relations of this and similar 

 circumstances, there was nothing mawkish or unnatural, they came from 

 him as the genuine feelings of his heart, and it was impossible for a 

 moment to suppose they arose from any affectation of feeling : thus, 

 though there is nothing very extraordinary in the fact, that he never 

 killed a bird, but once by accident with a stone, it serves to shew the 

 native humanity, and disinclination to injure any thing, for which he 

 was remarkable. 



When I was with him one morning, after some conversation on indif- 

 ferent subjects, he said, " are you a collector of relics, Mr. Atkinson ? 

 scarcely knowing to what this tended, I answered in the affirmative ; 

 should you like to possess one of me? I expressed the high satisfaction 

 I should experience in a memorial of him, and he took from the draw- 

 er of the table he was engraving at, a small packet of paper, which on 



