56 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



state of things, while the family were more de- 

 pendant upon the industry of their father, he had 

 failed in business, left Durham, and begun busi- 

 ness 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 

 broth r 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 



[* Either Copeland's "New Book of Ornaments," 1746, or Lock 

 and Copeland's Do., 1752. Both were in the possession of the 

 family, and were sold at the Bewick sale of February, 1884.] 



