ig8 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



motto, a saying, or a moral at the most unexpected moment. How true the 

 sentiment of the words is, we all realise for ourselves : as we look back to 

 things past, and remember the many delights we have had, and the many 

 sorrows, we marvel how they seem to have passed so almost entirely away, 

 leaving only a vague sense of pain or pleasure. At page 173, the penny- wise 

 and pound-foolish owner of a cow is seen up to the waist in a running stream. 

 In the distance a bridge crosses the water, but beside it stands a toll-house, 

 and the payment there is what has caused the miserly man to risk life and 

 limb. The cow has started for the other shore, and though its master would 

 now fain turn back, the animal goes on regardless of the cries and 

 gesticulations of the men on the other side who give warning of still further 

 dangers. The man's hat has blown off, and he has laid hold of the cow's tail' 

 illustrating " the use of entailed property." 



The engravings of the birds at this place are neither interesting from 

 association nor specially fine in execution, and not until we reach the Black- 

 backed Gull do we find one more than ordinarily good, though all have 

 certain qualifications to make them noteworthy above other engravers' work. 

 Of the tail-pieces, the wintry landscape at page 198 is one of the gems of the 

 volume — the chilly feeling given by the snow spread on the ground and the 

 bared trees makes a lovely little picture. At page 208 an old man stops his 

 donkey to speak with a beggar ; and the next, on page 211, is a satire on 

 gourmands who did not, like Bewick's friend Gilbert Gray, eat only when 

 hungry, and drink when dry. At page 220 an old man reads a lesson to a 

 boy from an ancient stone standing in the midst of a civilisation of another 

 age ; while the next vignette gives a sarcastic touch concerning the water in 

 which the washerwoman makes clean her clothes. 



The Mute Swan, reproduced at the head of this chapter, is singularly rich 

 in its composition, and though the water is not so reflective as it ought to be, 

 the eye instinctively rests on the feathers and the foliage, wrought with all 

 Bewick's grace and skill. At page 245 is a sketch of Wetherall Church 



