64 MEMOIR OP THOMAS BEWICK. 
to affect), ‘ Gie me sax penn'orth o’ bawbees and 
throwing the copper among the children, said 
kindly, and with a merry flourish of his cudgel, 
‘ There, chields, fit yoursels wi’ ballots, and gae 
hame singing to your mammies.’ He was particu- 
larly fond of playing with little children, who, not- 
withstanding his bulky appearance, and extremely 
rough face, suffered themselves to come unto him ; 
and among the numerous and ill-sorted contents of 
his capacious pockets, he generally (like the all- 
hearted Dandy Dinmont) had an apple, a whistle, 
or a bit of gingerbread, together with pencil ends, 
tom proofs, scraps of sketches, highly tinted with 
the yellow ooze of huge pigtail quids, in divers 
stages of mastication. 
“ Yet gentle, generous, and playful as he was, 
his personal strength and coinage was prodigious : 
and notwithstanding his ardent feelings of humanity 
towards all animals, particularly dogs, horses, and 
birds, in defending many whereof he had drawn 
himself into scrapes ; yet, when his own safety was 
at stake, he could repel an attack with a vigorous 
neart and arm : for he told me, as how going into a 
tanyard, a great surly mastiff sprung upon him, and 
how he caught said mastiff by the hind legs, and 
‘ fetched him, wi’ his cudgel, such a thwacker owre 
the lumber vertebras, that sent him howling into a 
hovel.’ 
“ We enjoyed our evenings as may well be 
conceived, with such a host at our head ; often till 
broad morning began to spread her bright drapery 
