142 



JOHN BEWICK. 



of the Birds. Engraving on copper also he very seldom practised, but in 

 designing his powers were almost unrivalled, and, as evidenced in the series 

 of cuts which illustrate Goldsmith's and Parnell's Poems and Somervile's 

 " Chase," they possessed potentialities which suggest that if he had been given, 

 or had taken, the means to obtain the training of an artist, and had been 

 taught the manipulation of colours, he would have risen to be a painter of great 

 celebrity. Ill-health, united with an unfortunate unstability of disposition, 

 probably deterred him from studying so much as he should have done. 

 These, combined with being early compelled to trust to his own resources 

 for a livelihood, and possibly with a lack of careful counsel and super- 

 vision when he left home, contributed much towards leaving his powers 

 incompletely called forth ; and his comparatively early death cut him 

 off at a period when he had just achieved the most notable success of 

 his life. 



His elder brother and many of his London friends always spoke in high 

 terms of his ability as a designer. Thomas, years after John's death, is recorded 

 to have expressed his firm conviction that his brother might have attained 

 great distinction, even more than he himself had done, if the hand of death 

 had but spared him for a few years longer. 



It is not only probable, but very likely, that John Bewick, during his 

 apprentice years in Bewick and Beilby's workshop, helped considerably in the 

 execution of some of the cuts of the "Select Fables" of 1784. As the 

 finishing touches, however, would all be done by Thomas, there are none in 

 the series which completely bear the impress of John's method of work. The cut 

 illustrating the "Brother and Sister " Fable on p. 172 of the original volume 

 and p. 80 of this, or the "Butterfly and Boy" on p. 239 of the 1784 edition 

 and p. 17 here, possess in the figures something of the style adopted by John 

 Bewick in later years. This style is not by any means so artistic or long- 

 satisfying as that of Thomas ; it is dry and apt to be monotonous. Yet John's 



