JOHN BEWICK. 



by Robert Pollard, appeared. The author, a Northumbrian, was one of the 

 greatest of Thomas Bewick's friends when he spent his short sojourn in 

 London, and friendship also existed between him and John. An announce- 

 ment made with the publication of this book promised to issue a volume every 

 six months, to be printed by Bulmer, who afterwards produced the Goldsmith 

 and Parnell, " The Chase," and other fine works; but the sale of this, the first 

 part, being very small, it was resolved to discontinue it. No other volume, 

 therefore, appeared, although the preface states that the subjects for the 

 second had been put into the hands of the respective artists. There are 

 numerous copper-plates in the volume published, but the woodcuts only are 

 by John Bewick. That of Classical Ruins on page 33 is signed ; a very fine 

 cut of a ruin, with carefully drawn trees, is on p. 105 (repeated on p. 136) ; the 

 others are artistically arranged heraldic devices and weapons of warfare. 



The next year, 1794, E. Newbery published the " Amusing and Instructive 

 Tales for Youth." This work contains thirty-five engravings by John, which — 

 questionably, however — have been pronounced to be "among the highest 

 efforts of his genius." The letterpress was composed by J. H. Wynne, the 

 author of "Riley's Choice Emblems," and it was meant to be a companion 

 book to that work. The prints are of a similar character to those in the 

 " Progress of Man and Society," though they are scarcely so good on the 

 whole. The best-known design in the volume is the one on page 55, a cat 

 prowling along the edge of a river bank watching some fish which pop their 

 heads up out of the water, after the manner of Japanese and pre-Raphaelite 

 productions. The figure of the cat is surprisingly clever, and though it is 

 scarcely true that it is the most natural likeness of the animal ever engraved 

 up to that time, as has been said, yet it is, when well printed, an exceedingly fine 

 representation of the stealthy, tiger-like movement the cat sometimes makes. 



In April, 1794, William Bulmer, an intimate friend of the Bewicks, who 

 had become successful as a publisher in London, issued a circular to the 

 following effect : — 



