THOMA S BE WICK. 



43 



with designs by Kent, Wootton, and Gravelot, and another edition was issued 

 in 1755. Saint proposed to make an edition smaller in size than these, but 

 more elaborately embellished ; the volume, when complete, containing sixty- 

 six head-pieces for the Fables, and a number of vignette tail-pieces. 



The work was not issued until 1779, or five years after Bewick's appren- 

 ticeship was over ; many, if not most of the blocks, however, being engraved 

 prior to the end of his engagement. Beilby seems to have exerted himself 

 to produce the illustrations as well as could be done ; the frontispiece, which 

 he engraved, being one of his most carefully wrought works. Bewick, too, 

 entered into the work with much enthusiasm, and produced cuts in advance 

 of anything he had yet executed. He was a great believer in the power of 

 fables as a means of inculcating virtue, and in his Memoir dilates on the 

 advantages to be gained by their perusal : — 



" It is the duty of parents and guardians," he says, " to endeavour, with the 

 utmost care, to discover the capacities and fitness of youth for any business before 

 they engage in it. . . . But the fondness of parents for their offspring is mostly such 

 as to blind them in forming a judgment, and disappointment is sure to follow. It 

 would be well," continues he, " for such parents to read Gay's fable of ' The Owl, 

 the Swan, the Cock, the Spider, the Ass, and the Farmer.' " 



In this edition of Gay's Fables the most notable engraving is the well- 

 known cut called "The Hound and the Huntsman," on page 132 of the work. 

 The design, which appears at the head of this chapter, is a carefully drawn 

 man on horseback, whipping a dog which has disturbed the hunting party. 

 "The Huntsman to the clamour flies, The smacking lash he smartly plies." 

 This is surrounded by a floral border of neat workmanship. At a glance it is 

 evident that much thought had been spent on the design, but it is also 

 evidently the work of one who was only feeling his way and trying his 

 strength. The sentiment of the composition nevertheless is complete. This 

 cut has often been called the Huntsman and Old Hound (as, for instance, in 

 the contents of Bewick's Memoir), a title first given to it in the 1820 Fables. 



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