He also executed some curious works on copper, to illustrate a _Tour
through Lapland_, by Matthew Consett, Esq.; and his _Quadrupeds_
having passed through seven editions, his fame was widely and well
established. The famous typographer, Bulmer, of the Shakspeare Press
(a native of Newcastle,) now employed John Bewick, who, at the age of
fourteen, had also been aprenticed to Bielby, in co-operation with
his brother Thomas, to embellish a splendid edition of Goldsmith's
_Deserted Village_ and _Hermit_, Parnell's _Poems_, and Somerville's
_Chase_. The designs and execution of these were so admirable and
ingenious, that the late king, George III. doubted their being worked
on wood, and requested a sight of the blocks, at which he was equally
delighted and astonished. It is deeply to be lamented we have so few
specimens of the talents of John Bewick, who died of a pulmonary
complaint, 1795, at the early age of thirty-five.
I now, in this hasty, feeble, and divaricated biographical sketch,
approach the great and favourite work of my admired friend, _The
History of British Birds_. The first volume of this all-delighting
work was published in 1797, jointly by Bielby and Bewick, but was
afterwards continued by Bewick.
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