THOMAS BEWICK. 



113 



as it was afterwards found that eight shillings was as small a sum as would 

 give a reasonable return for the outlay, which necessarily must have been 

 large.* Be the cause as it may, a cheap edition never was printed, but the 

 second edition was raised to nine shillings, the fourth to ten shillings and 

 sixpence, the fifth to thirteen shillings, and the sixth and last two editions to 

 a guinea. 



As the blocks were engraved by Bewick he took them to his old friend 

 Thomas Angus, the printer — it was before the printing connection with 

 Hodgson — and had a few impressions taken off, some on thin paper, as 

 proofs, and about a dozen on thick paper. The latter Bewick at first intended 

 to issue coloured, but " the labour and expense deterred him from doing all 

 the animals in this manner. They were never sold ; and what were done, or 

 at least a few of them, were coloured by the apprentices in his shop for the 

 use of his own children. "f 



The first edition of the "History of Quadrupeds" consisted of 1,500 

 copies, printed on demy octavo paper, and sold at eight shillings. A 

 hundred copies were also printed on paper a little larger — royal octavo — and 

 sold for twelve shillings. The latter are now very difficult to obtain ; while 

 the former are also much increased in value, but, from the large number of 

 the edition, are frequently to be met with at moderate prices. The wood 

 engravings number two hundred, with over a hundred vignette tail-pieces 

 of various sizes and importance. 



On the title-page is a print of a stag drinking at the basin of a spring 

 which gently trickles over a rock, as " Maga " said, " like a well asleep in a 

 moss-grown cell, built by some thoughtful recluse in the old monastic day." 



The work proper begins with the Horse, which is followed by the Ass, 

 the Ox, the Sheep, the Goat, and the Deer. This arrangement is more 



* The net profit of the first edition is stated by Bell to have beenjf 125 16s. 8d., and the second, ^342 5s. ud. 

 This was divided equally between Bewick, Beilby, and Hodgson, 

 f Garrett, in the " Bewick Collector." 



Q 



