A great many of the ordinary bits of landscape which Bewick used for book-plates he afterwards utilised as tailpieces for various books illustrated by him. The book-plate of the 'Rev. H. Cotes, Vicar of Bedlington, 1802,' which shows us the reverend gentleman busily engaged in fishing, doubtless a favourite sport with him, is an instance of this diverted use; but in this case we know the history of the plate. Mr. Cotes had practically edited the artist's second volume of _British Birds_, and, as a slight return, Bewick prepared for him the book-plate in question; but, owing to a subsequent quarrel, the artist never gave the parson the block, turning it instead to his own account. There are a great many more copper-plate book-plates by Bewick than is generally supposed. One of the most elaborate is that of 'Buddle Atkinson,' which represents a bubbling trout-stream, into which an angler casts his line: in the foreground is a crest enclosed in a shield. Other copper-plate work by Bewick is found in the book-plates of 'Edward Moises, A.M.'--a shield of arms, with books, pens, artists' tools of all kinds, and musical instruments; 'James Charlton' and 'A. Clapham'--Tyneside scenes; 'J. H. Affleck, Newcastle-upon-Tyne'--a shield of arms, in the midst of flowers and foliage; 'Tho^{s} Carr, Newcastle'--a spring of water flowing from a rock; and some few others. Examples of the more unusual designs in Bewick's book-plates, _i.e._ those in which scenery is not depicted, are found in the book-plates of 'John Anderson, St. Petersburgh'--a sportsman on horseback, which was afterwards utilised as a vignette in _British Birds_; 'Mr. Bigges'--a figure of liberty; 'Alex^{r} Doeg, shipbuilder'--a just-completed ship, still standing on the stocks; and several others, which simply show the shield of arms and owner's name. One reason why Bewick was so successful as an engraver of book-plates lay in the fact that his ability was most conspicuous in a small design. The work of such men as Hogarth or Bartolozzi seems cramped when it appears on the small scale which alone a book-plate can admit; but with Bewick, the smaller the size of the scene he desired to represent, the greater was his skill in introducing into it both originality and beauty. CHAPTER VI GERMAN BOOK-PLATES I HAVE said that the use of book-plates, whether as commemorative of gifts or as marks of ownership, originated in Germany. Here, well before the close of the fifteenth century, we find at least three undoubted book-plates, examples of which have survived until the present day, and have recently been discovered fulfilling the function for which they were originally intended. Fastened to the cover of an old Latin vocabulary was discovered the most ancient of these book-plates. It is printed from a wood-block, and is rough in execution. It shows us a hedgehog carrying a flower in its mouth, trampling over fallen leaves; above is the inscription, '_Hans Igler, das dich ein igel kuss_.'