BEING now nearly fourteen years of age, and a stout boy, it was thought
time to set me off to business; and my father and mother had long been
planning and consulting, and were greatly at a loss what it would be
best to fix upon. Any place where I could see pictures, or where I
thought I could have an opportunity of drawing them, was such only as I
could think of. A Newcastle bookseller, whose windows were filled with
prints, had applied to Mr. Gregson for a boy; and, when I was asked if I
would like to go to him, I readily expressed my hearty consent; but,
upon my father making enquiry respecting him, he was given to understand
that he bore a very bad character: so that business was at an end. The
same year—1767—during the summer, William Beilby and his brother Ralph
took a ride to Bywell, to see their intimate acquaintance, Mrs. Simons,
who was my godmother, and the widow of the late vicar there. She gave
them a most flattering account of me; so much so, that they, along with
her and her daughter, set off that same afternoon to Cherryburn to visit
us, and to drink tea. When the Newcastle visitors had given an account
of their enamellings, drawings, and engravings, with which I felt much
pleased, I was asked which of them I should like to be bound to; and,
liking the look and deportment of Ralph the best, I gave the preference
to him. Matters bearing upon this business were slightly talked over,
and my grandmother having left me twenty pounds for an apprentice fee,
it was not long till a good understanding between parties took place,
and I soon afterwards went to R. Beilby upon trial.
[Illustration:
THOMAS BEWICK _NEWCASTLE_
was Bound October the first 1767
]
The first of October was the day fixed upon for the binding. The
eventful day arrived at last, and a most grievous one it was to me. I
liked my master; I liked the business; but to part from the country, and
to leave all its beauties behind me, with which I had been all my life
charmed in an extreme degree,—and in a way I cannot describe,—I can only
say my heart was like to break; and, as we passed away, I inwardly bade
farewell to the whinny wilds, to Mickley bank, to the Stob-cross hill,
to the water banks, the woods, and to particular trees, and even to the
large hollow old elm,[9] which had lain perhaps for centuries past, on
the haugh near the ford we were about to pass, and which had sheltered
the salmon fishers, while at work there, from many a bitter blast. We
called upon my much-esteemed schoolfellow, Christopher Gregson, at
Ovingham, where he and his father were waiting to accompany us to
Newcastle—all on the same errand—(we were both bound on that day). While
we were condoling:—comforting each other—I know not what to call it—at
the parsonage gates, many of the old neighbours assembled at the
churchyard wall, to see us set off, and to express their good wishes;
and, amongst the rest, was a good, sensible old woman of the village,
named Betty Kell, who gave us her blessing, and each a penny for good
luck. This being done, our horses were mounted, and we commenced our
journey. The parties kept at a little distance from each other. I
suppose our late preceptor was lecturing his son, and my father was
equally busied in the same way with me. He had always set me the example
and taken every opportunity of showing how much he detested meanness,
and of drawing forth every particle of pride within me, for the purpose
of directing it in the right way. He continued a long while on subjects
of this kind, and on the importance and inestimable value of honour and
honesty; and he urgently pressed upon me to do my duty to my master, in
faithfully and obediently fulfilling all his commands, to be beforehand
in meeting his wishes, and, in particular, to be always upon my guard
against listening to the insinuations and the wicked advice of worthless
persons, who I would find ever ready to poison my ear against him. He
next turned his discourse on another topic—new to me from him—of great
importance—religion—and pressed this also upon me in a way I did not
forget. He begged I would never omit, morning and evening, addressing
myself to my Maker, and said that if I ceased to do so, then he believed
and feared every evil would follow. I was greatly surprised to hear him
dwell on this subject; for I think it was the first time. He used,
indeed, to go to church; but I do not recollect his ever commenting upon
the sermons he heard there, further than that, the good man’s discourse
from the pulpit seemed to him to be wasted upon the majority of his
congregation, and of his calling some of them “holy professors.” My
mother, who was of a religious turn, had, indeed, all her life
endeavoured to make me so too; but, as I did not clearly understand her
well-intended lectures, they made little impression. My father’s pithy
illustrations, as before hinted at, were much more forcibly and clearly
made out: I understood them well, and they operated powerfully upon
me.[10] I have often reflected since upon the very high importance, and
the necessity, of instilling this species of education into the minds of
youth; for, were pains taken to draw forth the pride naturally implanted
in their minds for the wisest and best purposes, if properly directed,
it would exalt human nature, and be of the utmost importance to
individuals and to society. It is the want of this education, and the
want of industry, that occasions and spreads misery over the land. How
can I doubt that, if my father had been a thief, I would have been one
also, or, if a highwayman or robber, as expert as himself. In my
opinion, there are two descriptions of persons who ought to forbear, or
be prevented, from marrying—viz., those of a base, wicked, and dishonest
character, and those who have broken down their constitutions and
debased both mind and body by dissipation. The latter entail misery upon
their innocent offspring: the children of the former, by the bad example
shown to them, become a curse to the community in which they live.
Footnote 9:
This old tree was swept away by the great flood of the 17th November,
1771.
Footnote 10:
I recollect one instance where I felt the force of this species of
education. I might enumerate some others, but this left its mark upon
me. Having fallen in with, and joined, two untutored lads, in Prudhoe
“lonning,” they jumped over the hedge and filled their pockets with
potatoes. The farmer was watching, but they escaped. Not having
followed their example, I did not offer to fly, but he seized me, and
threatened what he would do. At this I was extremely distressed, and
had it not been that I consoled myself with the certainty that my
father and mother would believe me, on my asserting that I had not
stolen any of his potatoes, I believe I would have drowned myself.
When we arrived at Newcastle, the documents were soon made ready to bind
my companion and myself. He was bound to Messrs. Doughty and Wiggins,
chemists and druggists; but Mr. Beilby (perhaps from his having heard
some unfavourable account of me) and my father not readily agreeing upon
the exact terms of my servitude, some fears were entertained that the
business between us might be broken off. On this occasion my preceptor
interfered very ardently, spoke warmly in my praise, and dwelt forcibly,
in particular (notwithstanding my wild, boyish behaviour at school),
upon my never being saucy or sulky, nor in the least indulging in
anything like revenge. In this business, Mr. Gregson was ably seconded
by his relation and my kind friend, Mr. Joseph Langstaff, of Newcastle,
who was also acquainted with my new master; and so the business of
binding was settled at last.
My new master, who, I believe, had laid down plans for the regulation of
his own conduct, began with me upon a system of rigid discipline, from
which he never varied or relaxed, and it was not long before I gave
occasion to his putting it in force. Having walked out on a Sunday
afternoon to see the environs of the town, the first place that
attracted my attention was “King Jamie’s Well.” There I fell in with bad
company, consisting of three low blackguard ’prentice lads, from the
Close. Having no wish to have anything to say to them, I endeavoured to
shun their company; but they, seeing me in a strange and perhaps
somewhat clownish dress, followed and insulted me; and this they
persisted in till I could bear it no longer, when, turning upon one of
the sauciest of them, I presently levelled him, and was about serving
the second in the same way, when they all three fell upon me and showed
no mercy, so that, in the end, I went home to my master’s house with a
scratched face and black eyes. This was an abominable sight to the
family, which no excuse could palliate. After this, I was obliged to
attend my master to church twice a day, every Sunday, and, at night, to
read the Bible, or some other good book, to old Mrs. Beilby and her
daughter, or others of the family; and this continued during the time of
the term I boarded in the house with them.
The father of Mr. Beilby followed the business of a goldsmith and
jeweller in Durham, where he was greatly respected. He had taken care to
give all his family a good education, His eldest son, Richard, had
served his apprenticeship to a die-sinker, or seal engraver, in
Birmingham. His second son, William, had learned enamelling and painting
in the same place. The former of these had taught my master
seal-cutting, and the latter taught his brother Thomas and sister Mary
enamelling and painting; and, in this way, this most respectable and
industrious family lived together and maintained themselves. But, prior
to this state of things, while the family were more dependant upon the
industry of their father, he had failed in business, left Durham, and
begun business in Gateshead, where he and his eldest son Richard died.
I have been informed that the family had to struggle with great
difficulties about this period, and that, by way of helping to get
through them, their mother taught a school in Gateshead. But this state
of things could not have lasted long; for the industry, ingenuity, and
united energies of the family must soon have enabled them to soar above
every obstacle. My master had wrought as a jeweller with his father
before he went to his brother Richard to learn seal-cutting, which was
only for a very short time before his death. He had also assisted his
brother and sister in their constant employment of enamel painting upon
glass. At this time a circumstance happened which made an opening for my
future master to get forward in business unopposed by any one. An
engraver of the name of Jameson, who had the whole stroke of the
business in Newcastle, having been detected in committing a forgery upon
the old bank, he was tried for the crime. His life was saved by the
perjury of a Mrs. Grey; but Jameson left the town.
For some time after I entered the business, I was employed in copying
“Copeland’s Ornaments;” and this was the only kind of drawing upon which
I ever had a lesson given to me from any one. I was never a pupil to any
drawing master, and had not even a lesson from William Beilby, or his
brother Thomas, who, along with their other profession, were also
drawing masters. In the later years of my apprenticeship, my master kept
me so fully employed that I never had any opportunity for such a
purpose, at which I felt much grieved and disappointed. The first jobs I
was put to do was blocking-out the wood about the lines on the diagrams
(which my master finished) for the “Ladies Diary,” on which he was
employed by Charles Hutton,[11] and etching sword blades for William and
Nicholas Oley, sword manufacturers, &c., at Shotley Bridge. It was not
long till the diagrams were wholly put into my hands to finish. After
these, I was kept closely employed upon a variety of other jobs; for
such was the industry of my master that he refused nothing, coarse or
fine. He undertook everything, which he did in the best way he could. He
fitted-up and tempered his own tools, and adapted them to every purpose,
and taught me to do the same. This readiness brought him in an overflow
of work, and the work-place was filled with the coarsest kind of steel
stamps, pipe moulds, bottle moulds, brass clock faces, door plates,
coffin plates, bookbinders letters and stamps, steel, silver, and gold
seals, mourning rings, &c. He also undertook the engraving of arms,
crests and cyphers, on silver, and every kind of job from the
silversmiths; also engraving bills of exchange, bank notes, invoices,
account heads, and cards. These last he executed as well as did most of
the engravers of the time; but what he excelled in was ornamental silver
engraving. In this, as far as I am able to judge, he was one of the best
in the kingdom; and, I think, upon the whole, he might be called an
ingenious, self-taught artist. The higher department of engraving, such
as landscape or historical plates, I dare say, was hardly ever thought
of by my master; at least not till I was nearly out of my
apprenticeship, when he took it into his head to leave me in charge of
the business at home, and to go to London for the purpose of taking
lessons in etching and engraving large copper plates. There was,
however, little or no employment in this way in Newcastle, and he had no
opportunity of becoming clever at it; so he kept labouring on with such
work as before named, in which I aided him with all my might. I think he
was the best master in the world for teaching boys, for he obliged them
to put their hands to every variety of work. Every job, coarse or fine,
either in cutting or engraving, I did as well as I could, cheerfully;
but the business of polishing copper plates, and hardening and polishing
steel seals, was always irksome to me. I had wrought at such as this a
long time, and at the coarser kind of engraving (such as I have noticed
before), till my hands had become as hard and enlarged as those of a
blacksmith. I, however, in due time, had a greater share of better and
nicer work given me to execute; such as the outside and inside mottos on
rings, and sometimes arms and crests on silver, and seals of various
kinds, for which I made all the new steel punches and letters. We had a
great deal of seal-cutting, in which my master was accounted clever, and
in this I did my utmost to surpass him.
Footnote 11:
Afterwards the great Dr. Hutton. He died 27th January, 1823, in the
86th year of his age.
While we were going on in this way, we were occasionally applied to by
printers to execute wood cuts for them. In this branch my master was
very defective. What he did was wretched. He did not like such jobs; on
which account they were given to me; and the opportunity this afforded
of drawing the designs on the wood was highly gratifying to me. It
happened that one of these,—a cut of the “George and Dragon” for a bar
bill,—attracted so much notice, and had so many praises bestowed upon
it, that this kind of work greatly increased, and orders were received
for cuts for children’s books; chiefly for Thomas Saint, printer,
Newcastle, and successor of John White, who had rendered himself famous
for his numerous publications of histories and old ballads. With the
singing of the latter, the streets of Newcastle were long greatly
enlivened; and, on market days, visitors, as well as the town’s people,
were often highly gratified with it. What a cheerful, lively time this
appeared to me and many others! This state of things, however, changed
when public matters cast a surly gloom over the character of the whole
country; and these singing days, instead of being regulated by the
magistrates, were, in their wisdom, totally put an end to.
My time now became greatly taken up with designing and cutting a set of
wood blocks for the “Story-teller,” “Gay’s Fables,” and “Select Fables,”
together with cuts of a similar kind, for printers. Some of the Fable
cuts were thought so well of by my master that he, in my name, sent
impressions of a few of them to be laid before the Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, &c., and I obtained a premium. This I received
shortly after I was out of my apprenticeship, and it was left to my
choice whether I would have it in a gold medal, or money, (seven
guineas). I preferred the latter; and I never in my life felt greater
pleasure than in presenting it to my mother. On this occasion, amongst
the several congratulations of kind neighbours, those of Mr. Gregson, my
old master, stood pre-eminent. He flew from Ovingham, where the news
first arrived, over to Eltringham, to congratulate my father and mother;
and the feelings and overflowings of his heart can be better imagined
than described.
[Illustration]
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