and the relatively small number of his productions, make the record of his life of the briefest; and as must be confessed-we have not been able, after considerable pains, to add largely to the facts already collected respecting him. But THE COCK, THE DOG, AND THE FOX. (ENGRAVED BY NESBIT FOR the excellence of his work as a wood-engraver will always demand a record in the story of the revival of the art. In this respect he was the best of Bewick's pupils, and his achievement was in all probability greater than that of his fellows, because he was not tempted beyond the limits of his craft. CHAPTER XI. LUKE CLENNELL. THE Surname of Bewick's next pupil is a familiar one to Northumbrians. There is, in fact, a manor of Clennell on the east side of the river Alwine, not far from Alwinton; and there was even an actual Luke Clennell of that ilk who was high-sheriff of Northumberland in 1727. Whether the present Luke Clennell was in any way related to this family has not been chronicled. He was born at Ulgham, near Morpeth, on the 8th of April 1781, being the son of a respectable farmer. After covering his slate with sketches instead of sums, an incident so persistently repeated in artistic biography that it seems to be an almost indispensable preliminary to distinction, he began life, like Chodowiecki, as a grocer, or, as others say, a tanner. Here, if tradition is to be believed, he got into trouble, owing to an ill-timed likeness of an unsympathetic customer rashly depicted ad vivum upon a convenient shop-door; and some of his other drawings having attracted attention, his uncle, Thomas Clennell, of Morpeth, placed him with Bewick. This was in April 1797. With Bewick he remained seven years, and during his apprenticeship is said to have transferred to the block, and afterward engraved, a number of Robert Johnson's designs, which were used as tailpieces for the second volume of the "Birds." He speedily became an expert draughtsman and sketcher, and, like his master, was accustomed to make frequent excursions into the country in search of nature and the picturesque. His term of apprenticeship must have expired in April 1804; and, either shortly before this date or immediately after it, he executed a number of cuts for the "Hive of Ancient and Modern Literature," a selection of essays, allegories, and "instructive Compositions" in the "Blossoms of Morality" manner, made by Solomon Hodgson, Bewick's old partner in the "Quadrupeds." The third edition of this was published in 1806, and, according to Hugo, contains fourteen cuts by Bewick. This would give the majority of the illustrations to Clennell, who presumably designed as well as engraved them. That to the first part of the "Story of Melissa," a pretty little cut, bears his initials, and they are to be found on the "Northumberland Lifeboat." Some of the remaining cuts are also signed, and many of the rest may be confidently attributed to him; but those above mentioned are among the best. Besides the engravings for the "Hive," he continued, after his apprenticeship was concluded, to work for Bewick on the illustrations to Wallis and Scholey's "History of England," already referred to in our account of Nesbit. Finding, however, that Bewick received the greater part of the money, he put himself into direct communication with the proprietors, the result being that they invited him to London, where he arrived in the autumn of 1804; and one of the earliest indications of his residence in the Metropolis is his |