THOMAS BEWICK. 



187 



over which a man and dog- pursue a hare, whose flight is intercepted by 

 a man appearing at a hedge at the farther end of the field. The hare 

 leaves marks of its tracks in the snow, which the dog follows, as shown 

 in the fac-simile here given. Of this Mr. Ruskin, in his St. George's 

 annotated copy, says, " Quite glorious in all intellectual and executive 

 qualities. Seen, thought, and done, to the uttermost, so far as the subject 

 had anything in it to see, think, or do, and as his means went." 



The House Sparrow is treated in the letterpress at some length, though 

 the engraving fails to convey the ordinary colour of the bird. "The Howdy," 

 a tail-piece at p. 157, represents a man hurrying off a midwife, his horse's 



The Poachers. From a vignette in " The History of British Birds," Vol. I. 



head and half of the background being covered with a leaf engraved as if it 

 were laid on after the drawing had been finished. Bewick said the design 

 was intended to convey that this person's work was one that should be 

 concealed from view. 



The snow landscape, a tail-piece reproduced at p. 10, is one of the 

 finest little sketches in the collection, and the original drawing possesses very 

 remarkable breadth and beauty. The Skylark is usually printed in an 

 admirable grey tone, greatly enhancing the engraving. The tail-piece to 

 the Nightingale is an old man pondering over the inscription, " Vanitas 

 Vanitatum omnia Vanitas," on a tombstone in a ruined churchyard. A 



b b 2 



