86 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



a pleasant view of Cherryburn in the background. The bill of the bird 

 was several times re-engraved. The tail-piece "Pensioners," two horses 

 standing in a downpour of rain on a miserable evening, is a well-engraved 

 block, one which Mr. Ruskin, in his St. George's Museum copy of the Birds, 

 says has "highest possible quality — an amazing achievement in engraving, 

 and for feeling of melancholy in rain."* The Field Fare which follows 

 is one of the finer of the series, and the Cuckoo is a charming and splendid 

 engraving, in which the bird literally lives. 



The tail -piece styled " The End of Evil Men " represents a demon who, 

 having caught a coal merchant, is preparing to suspend him from gallows 

 under which the coal cart has been driven. The frightened looks of the 

 man and the horse's horror-stricken appearance, together with the evident 

 satisfaction of the demon, are admirably rendered. Bewick designed this 

 cut in order to frighten a coal dealer who had cheated him, and the idea 

 so impressed the dealer that he "confessed his guilt and on his knees 

 implored pardon." At the end of the notes on the Grosbeak another 

 demon smokes a pipe, while in the distance a man is suspended from 

 a gibbet, the demon being of opinion that he has done a good day's work. 

 The Bullfinch is a pretty print, and treated differently from those immediately 

 preceding it, as it has no background ; the figure from this loses something 

 in delicacy in the feathery look of the wings and breast, but it gains in 

 beauty of line. The Yellow Bunting is one of the finest, and was considered 

 by Bewick as the most beautiful of all his bird engravings. That it is 

 among the best there cannot be any question, but that it is the very best 

 is doubtful ; yet the delicacy in the feathers could not be surpassed, and by 

 a subtilty quite unexplainable the yellow colour of the bird seems to be 

 present in the woodcut. 



The tail-piece called "The Poachers" represents a snow-clad landscape, 



* It may interest some to know that this copy of Bewick's work — being in the Sheffield Museum solely for 

 educational purposes— has the vignettes at pp. 42, 47, 254, 285, and 317 cut entirely away. 



