148 



JOHN SCOTT. 



(Born 1774. Died 1827.) 



JOHN SCOTT was born at Newcastle-on- 

 ^ Tyne, in the year 1774. His parents were 

 evidently in humble circumstances, for the boy 

 began life as apprentice to a tallow chandler. A 

 considerable number of the artists whose works 

 have been noticed began life under conditions 

 which might well have stifled the artistic instinct ; 

 but surely never did parent of future artist make 

 less happy choice than did Scott, senior, when he 

 bound his son apprentice to Mr. Greenwell, who 

 carried on the business named in the old Flesh 

 Market of Newcastle. It is true there is nothing 

 to show that the young Scott had evinced any 

 marked aptitude for the career in which he was 

 destined to excel ; but the difference between the 

 vocation into which he was inducted by his parents, 

 and that for which Nature had so liberally endowed 

 him, is so wide as to be almost grotesque. 



He was probably handicapped with little educa- 

 tion when he entered Mr. Greenwell's service ; but 

 the inborn artistic spirit quickly developed, for 



