THOMAS BEWICK. 



77 



Among other works published in Newcastle about this time was an octavo 

 book on Christian Piety, which contained a cut signed " T. Bewick." The 

 subject of this is Christ Blessing Little Children, but the drawing is poor, and 

 the engraving singularly weak for one of Bewick's own blocks. Forgeries 

 of Bewick's style and subjects have since proved a great stumbling-block 

 for collectors of the artist's works, and it behoves them to be wary in accepting 

 anything signed " Bewick " as being really his work. Bewick himself knew of 

 many such forgeries, and though he declined to feed the " whimsies of biblio- 

 manists " in the case of the 1820 Fables, he appears not to have been able 

 to stop what has now come to a great height ; namely, the practice of 

 unscrupulous or ignorant booksellers selling nearly all volumes issued from 

 1770 to 1830 with cuts as containing the genuine works of Bewick. 



A small cut of the Crow's Nest bears the date May, 1783. The sketch 

 was drawn from the spire of the Exchange at Newcastle, and it shows a 

 crow's nest built on the vane, and in such a way that the nest turned and 

 always kept the entrance to the direction opposite to that from which the 

 wind was blowing. This was first built by the crows in March, 1783, and the 

 Newcastle people took great pleasure in watching the birds, not allowing any 

 one to molest the nest ; and for several years the crows returned to their 

 curious habitation. The cut by Bewick is circular, and appears to have been 

 made to fit into those old-fashioned watches which required padding to keep 

 their cases tight. The view is only of the top of the spire, the nest being 

 rather large in proportion to the building. It was printed for the first time in 

 an interesting little pamphlet published in Newcastle in 1876. 



In 1784 a Stockton publisher issued the "Bishopric Garland," which 

 contained two cuts by Bewick. One is uninteresting, but the other of the 

 Arms of the Bishopric is worthy of notice from the beauty given to a not too 

 charming subject by the introduction of a few flowers in the conventional 

 coat of arms. The cut at page 177 of the "History of All Nations" (London, 

 1784), though attributed with some authority to Bewick, is at the best a very 



