THOMAS BEWICK. 



97 



very similar to that given with the Snipe. As Mr. Ruskin says, in his St. 

 George's Museum copy of the Birds, when, as in these cases, Bewick felt he 

 had done the birds very well, he usually went in enthusiastically for the back- 

 grounds also. Of the five figures of the Godwits the merit varies consider- 

 ably : the Spotted Redshank and the Redshank are fairly well done, though 

 the spottiness of the birds detracts from the designs as pictures. The 

 vignettes to them are as different as delightful : at page 82 there is a sports- 

 man bringing down his bird, to which the dog runs ; at page 84, the 

 Pedlar and Mastiff design, with the man protecting himself from the 

 ferocious brute; at page 85, a man crossing the frozen pond with a branch 

 between his legs to save him from going down too far if the untried ice breaks, 

 with the dog at the side afraid to venture over ; a vagrant blowing a fire with 

 wonderfully expressive face ; and at page 90, another of the lovely feather series. 



Of the Sandpipers there are eight magnificent examples, every one a 

 perfect representation of the birds. The Reg-Legged Sandpiper is a very 

 full design, and is perhaps the best ; but nothing can exceed the delicate 

 beauty of the Purre and the Little Stint. The vignettes to the series are the 

 feathers reproduced at page 249 ; the Ungrateful Beggars leaving the gate 

 open, letting in all the dirty-footed animals to soil the bleaching clothes ; a 

 Tyneside view; Bird-nesting on the old walls of Newcastle (as seen from 

 Bewick's house at the Forth) ; the pastoral scene of the Old Shepherd reading 

 while his flocks graze — either a Border bit, or a remembrance of the visit to 

 Scotland ; and the feathers, one of which is given in fac-simile at page 140. 



The vignettes at this part of the volume are of greater interest than the 

 birds. The cut of a man ploughing, with the words underneath, "Justissima 

 Tellus," has a great deal of good work. Then comes the Beggar attacked by 

 a mastiff, the man holding up his staff in the only way a dog can be kept at 

 bay. A little farther on we have a burial-ground by moonlight, with a 

 tombstone on which the inscription runs, " Good times and Bad times and all 

 times get over," another of the character- making designs, bringing in a 



