io4 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



were realised and his hopes seemed blighted. He had believed that this 

 engraving would prove satisfactory, and of course increase his reputation. 

 He had proved by this block that he was the artist he felt himself to be ; but 

 now, within a few days of the completion of his anxious labours, the work 

 had fallen to pieces in his hands. Subsequent events, however, have shown 

 that even though shattered a sufficient number of proofs had been taken 

 to display its exquisite beauties, and these copies, being so few in number, 

 have become proportionately valuable. 



Of the number of impressions taken off on the Saturday, and therefore 

 before any damage came to the block, it is almost impossible to give a 

 correct account. The proofs on vellum can nearly all be traced, but of 

 those on paper the number cannot now authentically be given. In a letter 

 which Tunstall wrote to Bewick, dated July 15th, 1789, he says, "I duly 

 received the six impressions of the Chillingham Bull on vellum. * * They 

 were rather relaxed and a little crumpled in the coming." These six were 

 sent therefore to Tunstall, not taken by Bewick himself, as Bell states, and 

 appear to have been returned to Bewick on Tunstall' s death shortly after. It 

 is also known that Bewick retained a proof for himself— it is still in his 

 daughter's possession — that both Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Beilby received one 

 each, and that Bell claims that his father had the privilege of choosing the 

 best impression. This raises the number of vellum or parchment proofs of 

 the Bull to ten, and these are now in the possession of the following : — 



1. Mr. J. W. Ford, Enfield. 6. Rev. Mr. Buckley, Middleton Cheney. 



2. Dr. Joly, Dublin. 7. Miss Bewick, Newcastle. 



3. Mr. Pollard. 8. Dr. Joly, Dublin. 



4. South Kensington Museum. 9. Mr. Edwin Gray, York. 



5. Mr. Kettelles (? now). 10. Earl Spencer. 



The first on this list was given to Mr. Bailey, the land steward at Chilling- 

 ham, with whom Bewick lodged when sketching the Bull. On this impression 

 are the words, in Bewick's handwriting, " For Mr. Bailey." Mr. Ford, in a 



