THOMAS BEWICK. 



213 



He was over fifty years of age ; and though he had done his work well in 

 days gone by, and could look back with serenity on what he had accom- 

 plished, the time had come when he could not surpass these labours. Age 

 was gradually but surely creeping on him ; his vigour was none the less, 

 yet his hand did not make progress, but instead had begun slowly to lose its 

 cunning; and though his knowledge of the world — animal and moral — never 

 ceased to grow, nothing he did after the second volume of the Birds reached 

 the great standard attained by that work ; and, as years went by, it became 

 more and more evident that his greatest achievements were in the past. 



Bewick had no sooner published the second volume of the Birds than the 

 speedy sale and increasing demand required another edition of the already 

 popular work, so he issued a new edition of both volumes in 1805. One 

 figure of a bird and seven vignettes, besides eleven diagrams to illustrate the 

 new technical introduction, were added to the first volume. In the second 

 volume only one new block was inserted — that of the Swan Goose at page 281. 

 The addition to the first volume, the figure of the Grey Linnet, is an engraving 

 showing little exceptional merit above the general quality of the others, but at 

 the same time scarcely below it. Of the vignettes, the two dyers carrying 

 a tub, at page 17, is new. Atkinson says these are portraits of two old men 

 who belonged to Ovingham. They are conveying chamber-lye to the dye- 

 house, and, as Atkinson mentions, "the olfactory organs of both are evidently 

 affected by the pungent odour of their load." The next new vignette, the 

 Suicide (page 70), is a painful and suggestive idea ; the contrast between the 

 calm beauty of the natural scene and the distracting thoughts which only 

 recently had filled the mind of the man now hanging dead, is immediately 

 perceived, and leads to thoughts of stern truth and everlasting judgment. 

 Ploughing, at page 173, is new, but feeble; while the other additions, a 

 woman gathering flowers (page 211), and one seated in a bower (page 

 228), have much excellent work in the foliage, though the figures are 

 somewhat weak. The closely wedged ring of rough men shown on page 3 1 2 



