A catalogue of Bewick’s various works will not be expected in this brief sketch.  He did not confine himself to animal engraving; for in the years 1795 and 1796, were published by Mr. Bulmer, of Newcastle, the Traveller and the Deserted Village, by Goldsmith; Parnell’s Hermit; and Somerville’s Clara; with cuts by Bewick.  In 1797, appeared the first volume of his History of British Birds:  in 1818, he completed his first volume of Fables of Aesop and others.  In 1820, Mr. Charnley, of Newcastle, published a volume of Fables, as a vehicle for the impressions of the earlier blocks, both of head-pieces and vignettes, engraved by Bewick when very young, all previous to the year 1785, and for various publications.  This collection amounted to upwards of twelve hundred.[4] This volume contains an impression of the celebrated Old Hound, and five portraits, on wood, copies at different periods of Bewick’s portrait; that facing the title, from a painting of James Ramsay, is considered the nearest likeness.

It may now be interesting to note a few traits of the genius and personal habits of Bewick, as they have been sketched by his friend, Mr. Dovaston.  This gentleman observes: 

“It has been said that Linnaeus did more in a given time than ever did any one man.  If the surprising number of blocks of every description, for his own and others’ works, cut by Bewick, be considered, though perhaps he may not rival our beloved naturalist, he may be counted among the indefatigably industrious.  And amid all this he found ample time for reading and conviviality.  I have seen him picking, chipping, and finishing a block, talking, whistling, and sometimes singing, while his friends have been drinking wine at his profusely hospitable table.  At nights, after a hard day’s work, he generally relieved his powerful mind in the bosom of his very amiable family.”

“It has been supposed by many, and publicly asserted by a few, that Bewick never wrote his own works, but was wholly and solely employed on the designs; to this I have his positive contradiction, which would be enough; but that in addition to his own Memoir, which I have read in his own MS., I have seen him compose, extract, and translate passages for each bird he has engraved while I was in his house.  If his works have any great defect, ’tis the defect of omission; every one laments he has given so little of the history of each bird.  I have often offered him to rewrite the whole of the birds wherewith from early and lasting habits I was well acquainted, their characters and manners, interspersed with anecdotes and poetry, particularly from good old Chaucer, the bard of birds, and passages of every bearing brought together, flinging over the whole what may be called the poetic bloom of nature, in which none have so sweetly succeeded as honest White of Selborne.  But this he always resolutely refused; alleging that his descriptions,