14 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



and watching their manner of living, until he was thoroughly acquainted 

 with all their characteristics. 



Some painful incidents which happened at a hunting excursion in the 

 neighbourhood gave Bewick a great dislike to this pursuit. He came to feel 

 that however exhilarating and exciting the chase may be to man, the hunted 

 animal has nothing to think of but terror and fatality. On another occasion 

 the youthful Bewick's compassion was strongly aroused by his unexpectedly 

 knocking down a bullfinch with a stone. Often had he thrown missiles 

 at birds, but no victims previously had fallen into his hands. This time the 

 wounded bird fell from the tree half dead, and as he examined it he felt 

 the full force of what he had done, and as a result, it was the last bird he 

 killed, though, as he truly adds, " many indeed have been killed since 

 on my account." 



Had Bewick lived at the present day he would have been foremost in 

 all the philanthropic movements relating to the prevention of cruelty to 

 animals. Perhaps, however, he would have been more anxious to promote 

 their welfare by agitating for rewards to those who were kind and attentive 

 to their charges than to punish those who were harsh. His theory of such 

 matters was, that by praising and honouring those who did their duty with 

 marked distinction, an example was given to the vicious which would be of 

 more efficacy than all deterrent regulations. 



Dog-fights, cock-fights, and man-fights were among the common enter- 

 tainments of the peasants of the period, and Bewick was often present at 

 a set-to. With such performances he acknowledges he was not much dis- 

 pleased, though he seems to have been more amused by the grotesque 

 grimaces of the spectators than with the unhappy combatants. How hard 

 must Bewick have felt it to dissociate himself from the habits of the people 

 with whom he thus passed his early life ! It is little short of a miracle that 

 he was able to retain exalted feelings on the relationship of brute to 

 man, for these ordinary exercises of his neighbours could only blunt the 



