THOMAS BEWICK. 



195 



less than three drawings, slightly varying in details. The vignette of the 

 feather of the Water Crane (reproduced at an earlier page) is a very sig- 

 nificant print. "In these marvellous specimens," Mr. Stephens says, "we 

 have not only the peculiar texture and form of the subject, but the very 

 cohesion of the fibres of the feathers is expressed by, as is usual with Bewick, 

 the cutting out of the light of the block with perfect delineation of the half 

 tint, while not the least hint of an outline, or margin of any sort, is to be seen 

 anywhere." The tail-piece at p. 23 is a view of Bywell Boat-pool and Bywell 

 Castle — a man, with a salmon leister, wading in the water : this is said to be 

 the first of the series of vignettes executed by Bewick at his work-bench. 

 For a vignette to the fine Spoonbill there is a poor, hungry, wooden -legged 

 beggar eating ravenously from a bone, while his equally hungry dog looks 

 on watching for the least morsel, and waiting for the entire dainty when his 

 master has finished his meal. In strange and striking contrast to the group, 

 there is on a distant wall a well-fed strutting peacock, an emblem of the 

 luxury within the walls at the door of which the beggar sits. In the 

 "Select Fables" of 1784 a similar design appears (printed on page 46 

 here), but with the addition of the Courtier's Dependant. The next tail-piece 

 represents a man who, to secure a bird's nest seen in the upper part of a 

 tree overhanging a river, has come to grief by the branch giving way, and 

 his descent is rapid towards the running water below, illustrating how " we 

 must bow to fate in trusting to a rotten stick." 



The Heron is in the act of devouring its prey, while in the distance 

 another stands waiting in its patient way for a similar meal. The tail-piece 

 shows another kind of animal waiting for prey — this time a human one — and a 

 miserable time he is having of it. Notwithstanding his four rods he seems 

 little likely to catch the fish, while his personal wretchedness, amidst the 

 heavy rain, gives a vivid idea of the occasional discomforts of angling. 



The Night Heron (reproduced at page 2 12), though scarcely to be called 

 a British bird, is introduced into Bewick's work on account of its occasional 



c c 2 



