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.
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.
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.
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.
