THOMAS BEWICK. 



163 



also to be attacked and delightfully overcome by the designer ; and of 

 mechanical and artistic triumphs for the engraver. This was the celebrated 

 " History of British Land and Water Birds," the first volume of which was 

 issued in 1797, and the second in 1804. 



Bewick in 1791, the year in which he actively commenced preparations 

 for the publication, was in the very prime of life. At thirty-eight his early 

 ideas and schemes had matured; and his experience had become greatly 

 enlarged while preparing for and issuing the volume on Quadrupeds. 

 Besides this, the long practice in engraving endowed his hand with 

 a superior cunning to what it had before possessed. The time, there- 

 fore, was favourable to begin another important work, and however much 

 we may be pleased with the History of Quadrupeds, we cannot but acknow- 

 ledge that the History of British Birds very far surpasses it. 



Bewick's opportunities were also better. Not only had he the advantage 

 of prolonged experience, but his fame had so increased that, when the public 

 heard of the project, he had no difficulty in finding ample material wherewith 

 to make his illustrations. Mr. Constable, who had inherited the Wycliffe 

 Museum from Tunstall, invited him to visit, inspect, and draw from the 

 objects in his collection. Friends wrote offering him all sorts of help in 

 the way of description and anecdotes, and many sent him rare and fine 

 specimens of birds newly shot. These, accompanied with his determination 

 to draw only from nature, and his having diligently studied the standard 

 works of Natural History of the day, combined with his skill in the artistic 

 representation of birds, as well as the keen insight into human life shown 

 in the vignettes, make the volumes of the British Birds Bewick's greatest 

 and most lasting achievement. 



The Natural History written by Thomas Pennant had been published, 

 and Bewick was greatly indebted to him for the method pursued in the 

 compilation of the Birds, but to Pennant's arrangement he did not strictly 

 adhere. Buffon's plates also supplied him with much knowledge of the 



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