MEMOIR OP THOMAS BEWICK. 59 
captain, smallest of all, Well clothed, and in good 
shoes and stockings, — he is the squire's son, whose 
hall is seen behind ; a pretty emblem of incipient 
aristocracy. Twenty years hence that little fellow 
will blow his twopenny trumpet among the Tories, 
and cry ‘ the church in danger the next rascal 
will bamboozle him out of his money, and the two 
villains behind poach in his covers. If thou lovest 
a good ghost story, as I do marvellously, look at the 
terrified thief, mistaking the stumps and grey ran- 
pikes, in the gloomy moonshine, for devils and 
homed goblins, with white wicker ribs and lanky 
skeleton arms. Wouldst thou know the cause of 
his terror ? look into the back -ground : he has just 
passed a gallows. I have heard a great painter say 
that Hogarth might feel proud of this piece. — Ha ! 
that is the murine phaeton, drawn by four cocked- 
tailed mice : Sir Whisker and Lady Mousellina with 
her parasol, of Mouse-CoTTAGE ; their mouse foot- 
man, and the mouse arms are emblazoned with 
mouse supporters on the panel, in all the boast of 
mouse heraldry : they are going to make a call on 
Lord Frittertime and Madam Twaddle. — See how 
that heartless and coarse minded tanner grins a 
brutal laugh at the poor dog to whose tail the 
naughty boys have tied a tinned kettle : you may 
hear that it has just had a bouncing bang. — Those 
five methodists, listening to the call of their master, 
scarce occupy two inches ; yet look at their faces, 
male and female — special grace and election ! ! ! — 
and were it not for the horns and claws of the 
