158 



JOHN BEWICK. 



printed, and there can scarcely be any difficulty in the collector procuring a 

 volume with good impressions. 



The volumes issued in 1795 of a collection of all the Ancient Poems, 

 Songs, and Ballads relating to Robin Hood was illustrated by fifty-eight 

 engravings by Thomas and John Bewick. The first, a Forester relating his 

 tale to a friend, is signed " T. B.," and is not unlike the work in the Quad- 

 rupeds. The tail-pieces appear to be by Thomas, while John's work is 

 apparent in the cut of Robin Hood and the Beggar, Robin Hood and Little 

 John, and Robin Hood's Death and Burial. In Bewick's Memoir a letter 

 from Ritson, the compiler of the Robin Hood Songs, gives a glimpse into 

 the transactions of the time when the book was being prepared. Dating from 

 Gray's Inn, Ritson says he was " sorry he was gone out when Mr. Bewick 

 called ; but hopes he will proceed with the other cuts, which shall be left 

 entirely to his own fancy, and in which he will undoubtedly consult his own 

 reputation." * 



The " Blossoms of Morality." by the Editor of the " Looking Glass for the 

 Mind," London, 1796, is scarcely so clever as the " Looking Glass." Here 

 and there the prints are nearly equal in merit, but others are far below. 

 Newbery, the publisher, in the preface expresses the obligation he was under 

 to John Bewick for the illustrations, and says, " Much time has elapsed since 

 the commencement of this edition owing to a severe indisposition with which 

 the artist was long afflicted, and which unfortunately terminated in his death. 

 And sorry, very sorry are we to be compelled to state that this is the last effort 

 of his incomparable genius." 



The following letter, in the possession of Mr. C. J. Pocock, dated from 

 Crouch End, March 9th, 1795, * s apparently in answer to one written either by 

 Newbery about the " Blossoms of Morality," or by Bulmer respecting " The 



* In the appendix to Bewick's Memoir there are three blocks printed which are stated to have been engraved 

 for Ritson's work by John Bewick ; while proofs of the same blocks in the British Museum collection have Thomas 

 Bewick's name attached to them. They do not, however, appear in the 1795 edition, the reprint of 1832, nor in the 

 1820 edition of the Poems : the cuts in the last, it may be mentioned, are not by Bewick. 



