THOMAS BEWICK. 



13 



were, in his own as well as in his patrons' opinion, quite correctly 

 represented. 



Bewick relates in his Memoir that it was at this time he commenced 

 to have a real love for and appreciation of the birds and beasts which were 

 in and around his home. He tells how keenly he listened to the debates 

 and stories current amongst his father's friends, and how he frequently 

 went with a company who would start, " it might be in the chase of the fox 

 or the hare, or in tracing the foumart in the snow, or hunting the badger, 

 at midnight." In such excursions Bewick was made familiar with the haunts 

 and habits of many animals : of birds as well as beasts. During snow- 

 storms, also, the boy sometimes perched himself carefully just within shelter 

 in order to watch the birds which, tamed by hunger and extreme cold, came 

 close to the house at Cherryburn. This was a kind of scene Bewick 

 seems always to have been fond of, and in several vignettes in his works 

 he depicts such subjects with great success. The design standing at 

 the head of this chapter is one that appears in the "History of British Birds," 

 vol. i. The snow man is another splendid example of a winter scene ; 

 and the houseless, hungry ewe, with its kid seeking nourishment where 

 none is to be found, is one of the most pathetic of the exquisite series of 

 tail-pieces. 



It is interesting to notice how Bewick's early observation of the animal 

 creation asserted itself. He had great satisfaction in observing the practices 

 of the feathered inhabitants of the surrounding woods, and also the perform- 

 ances of the ants and bees whose haunts he came across. He relates with what 

 pure delight he watched " the birds, their nests, their eggs, and their young." 

 The bees, returning laden with their morning spoil, were particularly noticed 

 by him, as one of his employments was to watch before the hives to destroy 

 or frighten away the wasps which approached to plunder their wiser and 

 richer neighbours. The actions of spiders were sources of never-ending 

 wonder to him ; and with ants he experimented, by overturning their work 



