THOMAS BEWICK. 



205 



tomed to write for publicity, and carried away with the heat of her imagina- 

 tion. Poor Mr. Hodgson must have had a sad time with her if she were 

 often so excited. Be that as it may, it was evidently the lady's notion that 

 her husband was a greater and more eminent man than the "wood-cutter," 

 Bewick. Mr. Hodgson had been, indeed, a clever editor and business man, 

 and his widow was doubtless unwilling that all honour should not be ren- 

 dered to him. Nevertheless, her argument is not worthy of serious considera- 

 tion. That her husband paid his proportion of expense of the author's 

 labours and the wood engravings is true; "therefore," she triumphantly 

 asserts, "both equally belong to me." Certainly both equally belonged to 

 her — in their proportion ; but that she had a shadow of a claim on the whole 

 was unquestionably absurd, for the words employed conclusively show that 

 it was only a share Mr. Hodgson paid. It is possible that Mrs. Hodgson 

 supposed the entire works to belong to her husband because she found 

 receipts for the moneys nominally paid to Bewick and Beilby in settlement 

 of their claims as engraver and compiler, just as Beilby and Bewick probably 

 held receipts from Hodgson for his printing. This is only conjecture, but 

 it was reasonable that the artist and author should have been first paid a sum 

 for their work in the same way that Hodgson required something above his 

 share of the profits to pay for the setting up and printing ; and, from what 

 Bewick says, it appears that such sums were actually arranged. Bewick's 

 answer to the charge was a powerful letter repelling all the insinuations. 

 After replying to a statement in Pinkerton's " Scottish Gallery," * he says : — 



" In answer to Mrs. Hodgson, I may be allowed to ask if I was merely employed 

 as the ' wood-cutter ? ' Who gave me the order and furnished the design ? I 



* Pinkerton, in the introduction to his "Scottish Gallery," 1799, refers to the death of Bewick's pupil, Robert 

 Johnson, whom he had engaged to make copies of portraits at Taymouth Castle. He says, " His correspondent 

 informed him that Johnson had been bound apprentice to Bewick," and " Bewick, observing his uncommon genius 

 for drawing, employed him to trace the figures on the wood in his elegant ' History of Quadrupeds.' " This state- 

 ment led Bewick to reply, at the beginning of the 1805 letter, " It is only necessary for me to declare, and this will 

 be attested by my partner, Mr. Beilby, who compiled the ' History of Quadrupeds,' and was a proprietor of the 

 work, that neither Robert Johnson, nor any person but myself, made the drawings, or traced or cut them on the 

 wood." 



