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THOMAS BEWICK. 



is remarkably fine throughout, the foliage having much loving labour bestowed 

 on it. The last tail-piece is at the end (page 456), where two blind fiddlers 

 play to an audience consisting of a boy, a dog, and a plaster cast grinning over 

 a wall. The men work away at their instruments, chorusing in to help the effect 

 of their appeal, but their labours are lost in the deserted roadway into which 

 they have strayed. Did Bewick not mean by this to inculcate the moral that 

 unless we have a reasonable certainty of being listened to there is no use in 

 fiddling ; that unless something better than plaster casts are present it is 

 vain to wait expectingly for recompense ; in short, that unless we have 

 certain conditions granted we may as well remain silent ? 



It may be interesting here to note one or two opinions which specially deal 



with the Quadrupeds. We begin with some letters which passed between 

 George Allan, the purchaser of the Wycliffe Museum, and Thomas Pennant, 

 the naturalist, and one from Allan to Bewick personally, which were published 

 in 1827 in Fox's " Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum." 



From Thomas Pennant to George Allan, dated Downing, December 16th, 

 1783, there is a note evidently in reply to one sent to him asking if he could do 

 any service to help forward Bewick. The date is a considerable time before 

 the Quadrupeds were commenced, and the specimens probably sent were from 

 the 1784 " Select Fables " blocks. It is to be noted that it was through Allan 

 that Bewick was introduced to Tunstall, for whom the Chillingham Bull was 



The Field Mouse. " The General History of Quadrupeds." 



