Memoir of the Rev. John Frederic B'igge. '2\1 



Grreenwell (the famed barrow-hunter and inventor of the "Green- 

 well " troutfly,) and Mr "William Henderson, author of " Folklore 

 of the Northern Counties" and "My Life as an Angler:" and 

 many a good-humoured laugh had he at the capacity for the 

 "marvellous" displayed in the latter of these two books. He 

 had an amazing fund of anecdote, the zest of which was greatly 

 increased by his power of accurately reproducing the provincial 

 dialect ; endued with a keen sense of the ridiculous and amusing, 

 no opportunity passed unnoticed, but was stored up in memory 

 or on paper, for convenient reproduction. 'Dulce est desipere in 

 loco.' He had the folklore of Northumberland at his fingers' 

 ends, more particularly those points which were of local interest : 

 from the legends of the Roman Wall (which ran through his 

 parish) to the last appearance of the Nafferton and Welton ghosts ; 

 from the ballad of ' Lang Lonkin's Hole ' to the latest mumbled 

 charm for whooping cough or scarlet fever. 



The Vicar of Ovingham, the native parish of Bewick the 

 engraver, where also he was buried, could not but take a lively 

 interest in that distinguished man : we find therefore that, 

 amongst Mr liigge's large and important collection of local books, 

 Bewick's works occupied a prominent place ; and especially an 

 extensive and valuable series of India proofs of the celebrated 

 vignettes and tailpieces, as well as the larger cuts, which were 

 presented to him in 1881 by Miss Isabella Bewick. These, now 

 mounted and sumptuously bound in five quarto volumes, under 

 the care of Mr E. Robinson of Pilgrim Street, form a worthy 

 tribute to the genius of the celebrated engraver, and are now, 

 with the rest of Mr Bigge's library of local works, the property 

 of his eldest son. 



It should not be forgotten that Mr Bigge took a great interest 

 in the Meteorology of the district, and for many years kopt 

 registers of temperature and rainfall, which often found their 

 place in the Transactions of the Tyneside and Berwickshire Clubs. 

 He was for some years an ardent photographer, and one of the 

 earliest "dry-plate" workers : the 'modus operandi' of which ho 

 learned during a visit to Paris, at a time when it was unknown 

 in England. 



Not to mention other objects which engaged his attention, it 

 may be said that Mr Bigge was essentially a man for the country; 

 placed by Providence in the sphere of a country parish priest, he 

 was "the right man in the right place;" and as such was 



