58 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



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 en- 

 graving. 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 depart- 

 ment 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 employ- 

 ment in this way in Newcastle, and he had no 



