THOMAS BEWICK. 



259 



mention it, and Turner, in the " Annual Biography," 1830, refers to it. It was 

 written, it is said, to correct some statements which had been published, and 

 extended to two thick quarto volumes. Turner says Bewick intended 

 to accompany it with portraits of his early and particular friends, and with 

 many engravings to be executed on wood. Of the numerous conjectures 

 offered why the Memoir was kept back so long, the most probable is " that it 

 was so replete with personal allusions that it could not see the light of day 

 during the lifetime of his contemporaries." But in the way the volume was 

 ultimately published it is quite certain that none of the " personal allusions " 

 could give offence, though it is possible that much material was cut out 

 before publication. As a literary work, giving accurate and in many cases 

 well-written descriptions of the scenes through which the author passed, 

 certain parts of the Memoir are skilfully written. But as a biography 

 the work is very deficient : there is a discontinuity and lack of sequence 

 which is eminently unsatisfying to the reader, and can only be explained by 

 the fact that it was written by an old man long after most of the incidents 

 related had taken place ; and besides, the work bears evidence of having 

 been abridged. It is somewhat misleading, for instance, to find an event 

 recorded several pages before another which happened previous to it ; and 

 it is disappointing to find the details so meagre on some of the most 

 important points in the engraver's life — such as the Chillingham Bull 

 incident, or the publication of the Birds. Hugo, in his preface — all too 

 short — to the " Bewick Collector," after referring to the charming pictures 

 of natural objects contained in the Memoir, continues : — 



" But I hesitate not to say that, with regard to other parts of the volume, I 

 should have been glad of some omissions. I fully appreciate the feeling of an 

 affectionate and devoted daughter, which this most estimable lady ever was, 

 regarding as sacred everything left behind him by an idolized and lamented father, 

 and supposing the more minute account it possessed of his sentiments the more 

 the world would admire and love him. But I think that most readers of the 

 Memoir will agree with me in regretting that the chapters on religious and 



