Life<i Genius^ afid Personal Habits of Bewick, 315 



to a Mr. Bielby, an engraver on copper and brass. During 

 this period he walked most Sundays to Ovinghani (ten miles), 

 to see his parents ; and, if the Tyne was low, crossed it on 

 stilts ; but, if high-flowing, hollaed across to enquire their 

 health, and returned. This infant genius (but it was the 

 infant Hercules struggling with the snakes) was bound down 

 by his master to cut clock-faces and door-knockers — ay, 

 clock-faces and door-knockers ! — and he actually showed me 

 several in the streets of Newcastle he had cut. 



At this time he was employed by Bielby to cut on wood the 

 blocks for Dr. Hutton's great work on Mensuration. Hutton 

 was then a schoolmaster at Newcastle (1770). Still his rest- 

 less enthusiasm for Nature stirred within him ; and on his 

 master's " ticking " him, he one morning gave them all " leg^ 

 bail," and marched off, as he intended, for Scotland; but, 

 from his ignorance of the way, he walked to Carlisle, and 

 perambulated the bold, rich, and lovely scenery of Cumber- 

 land and Westmoreland, as he says, to his utter amazement 

 and rapture. Having here somewhat slaked his prodigious 

 thirst for Nature, he struck off for Scotland, and for many 

 weeks wandered among the nearer Hebrides and Highlands, 

 living on milk, bannocks, and kebbuck; which, like poor 

 Goldsmith (whom his father once sheltered in his cottage), h^ 

 repaid the hospitable Highlanders for with his flute. When, 

 on his return, he came to Jedburgh, his heart began to fail, 

 and the walk from thence to his master's bench was th(5 

 heaviest of all the hundreds of miles he had tramped. I have 

 repeatedly heard him speak of this wild excursion with the 

 most rapturous animation ; and, no doubt, it was among that 

 awful, amazing, and stupendous scenery, those seeds of g»nius 

 vigorously germinated and took most tenacious root, whose 

 branches were strengthened by the subsequent storms of life, 

 and whose luxuriant foliage basked to the latest evening in the 

 sunshine of prosperity, amid the well-earned radiation of suc- 

 cess. Happy old man ! the means by which thou hast pro- 

 vided for and educated thy amiable family, have been gained 

 by works that delight and instruct millions, and thy example 

 shows the ardent fidelity of thy heart; this fixed thy con- 

 fidence in thy Creator, and confirmed thy lively hopes of His 

 everlasting reward. 



After his apprenticeship, he worked a short time for a per- 

 son in Hatton Garden; but he disliked London extremely, 

 still panting for his native home, to whose braes and bonny 

 banks he joyously returned ; where he was occupied in cutting 

 figures and ornaments for books; and now received his first 

 prize from the Society of Arts for the " Old Hound," in an 



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