206 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



challenge the publication of the documents she mentions. They can only prove that 

 her late husband paid one-third part of the price of the engravings, and a similar 

 compensation for compiling the book. Her property therein has never been denied 

 by me, and therefore it was unnecessary for her to attack my character under the 

 pretext of an ' Address to the Editor of the " Annual Review," ' for whose mistakes 

 I am not answerable." 



Then follows the paragraph quoted on page 94 under " Preparation 

 for the Quadrupeds," where Bewick details the origin of that volume, and 

 the work undertaken by Beilby. He goes on to say : — ■ 



" As the cuts [of the Quadrupeds] were engraved, we employed the late Mr. 

 Thomas Angus, of this town, printer, to take off a certain number of impressions of 

 each, many of which are still in my possession. At Mr. Angus's death the charge 

 for this business was not made in his books, and at the request of his widow and 

 ourselves, the late Mr. Solomon Hodgson fixed the price ; and yet the widow and 

 executrix of Mr. Hodgson asserts in your Magazine that I was merely employed as 

 the engraver, or wood-cutter, (I suppose) by her husband ! Had this been the case, 

 is it probable that Mr. Hodgson would have had the cuts printed in any other office 

 than his own ? The fact is the reverse of Mrs. Hodgson's statement ; and although I 

 have never, either 4 insidiously ' or otherwise, used any means to cause the reviewers, 

 or others, to hold me up as the ' first and sole mover of the concern,' I am now 

 dragged forth by her to declare that / am the man." 



Bewick proceeds with the sentences quoted in detail at page no, mention- 

 ing how Hodgson was consulted, and how, from his great interest in the 

 undertaking, he was received into partnership with Beilby and himself on 

 April 10th, 1790. 



" What Mr. Hodgson did in correcting the press, beyond what falls to the duty 

 of every printer, I know not ; but I am certain that he was extremely desirous that 

 it should have justice done it. In this weaving of words I did not interfere, as I 

 believed it to be in hands much better than my own, only I took the liberty of 

 blotting out whatever I knew not to be truth. This work was published in 1790. 

 The History of Land Birds was begun 1791, and published in 1797, under circum- 

 stances exactly similar to the former work, excepting that Mr. Hodgson had no 

 share, and was merely employed as the printer. The History of the Water Birds, 

 from Mr. Beilby's declining [retiring from] the engraving business, devolved wholly 

 upon myself. In undertaking this, the vanity of being an author never entered into 



