THOMAS BEWICK. 



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wetting. Fulfilling the characteristics of the family, Mrs. Bewick did not 

 allow this occurrence to prevent the carrying out of her design, but proceeding 

 forward to see the invalid, she gave her advice before returning to change 

 her soaking garments. The violent chill thus received led to a heavy cold, 

 and though good medical assistance was obtained, she died after a few 

 weeks' illness, at the age of fifty-eight, on the 20th of February, 1785. 



No sooner was this melancholy incident over than Bewick's eldest sister 

 fell ill through the exertion and anxieties borne during her mother's illness. 

 She had been married and resident some time in London, having only 

 returned to Cherryburn on a visit. Everything, humanly speaking, was 

 done for her — good nursing, good advice, and removal to Bewick's own 

 comfortable home at the Forth. There sunshine and beauty were at all 

 times, and especially in the spring, as it then was, when the fruit trees were 

 blossoming and the long garden was filled with lovely flowers ; for Bewick 

 had now been some time in the house, and could have things his own way, 

 and nothing pleased him more than to be at work among his plants. We can 

 imagine him some clear afternoon later in the season, leaving his workshop 

 early to come home to labour in the garden, and coming into the house in 

 the evening with a bunch of his favourite roses culled specially for his sick 

 sister. But though the illness was protracted, the end surely approached, 

 and she died on the 24th of June, 1785, a little more than four months after 

 her mother. 



Still another heavy blow was in store for Bewick, and when it came he 

 must have felt desolate indeed. His father, now nearly seventy, was visibly 

 affected by the death of his wife and daughter. Bewick, assiduous and 

 affectionate, advised medical aid, but the old man had never been accustomed 

 to medicine, and would have none of it. Gradually losing interest in the few 

 things on earth that now had any attraction for him, he died on the 15th of 

 November, 1785, on his seventieth birthday, and on the day Bewick had 

 commenced his grand project of the work on " The General History of 



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