MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 2'1 



air, and for indulgence in his accustomed rural habits. 

 On his return to the North, he spent a short time in 

 Scotland, and afterwards became his old master's 

 partner, while John, his brother, was taken as their 

 joint-apprentice. 



About this time, Mr Thomas Saint, the printer 

 of the Newcastle Courant, projected an edition of 

 Gay's Fables, and the Bewicks were engaged to 

 furnish the cuts. One of these, " The Old Hound," 

 obtained the premium of the Society of Arts, for the 

 best specimen of wood-engraving, in 1775. An 

 impression of this may be seen in the Memoir pro* 

 fixed to " Select Fables," printed for Charnley, New- 

 castle, in 1820; from which many notices in the 

 present Memoir are taken. Mr Saint, in , 1776, 

 published also a work entitled, Select Fables, with 

 Jin indifferent set of cuts, probably by some inferior 

 artist ; but in 1779 came out a new edition of Gay, 

 and, in 1784, of the Select Fables, with an entire 

 new set of cuts, by the Bewicks. 



It has been already said, that Thomas Bewick, 

 from his earliest youth, was a close observer and ac- 

 curate delineator of the forms and habits of animals ; 

 and, during his apprenticeship, and indeed through- 

 out his whole life, he neglected no opportunity of 

 visiting and drawing such foreign animals as were 



