MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 77 



director to a party employed by Prince Poniat- 

 owsky, to take a survey of the various strata of 

 Poland ; but George being slovenly in his dress 

 and negligent in his person, felt himself slighted, 

 and left those who put on a more respectable 

 appearance to profit by his superior knowledge, 

 and to do the best they could, and he returned 

 home. Whether it was before or after this time 

 I have forgotten, but he visited North America, 

 and travelled in quest of knowledge pretty far 

 into the interior of that country. On his return 

 he resumed his old employment, in a room never 

 cleaned or swept, and surrounded with models, 

 crucibles, gallipots, brushes, paints, palettes, 

 bottles, jars, retorts, and distils, in such a chaos 

 of confusion as no words can describe. From 

 this Sanctum Sanctorum, he corresponded with 

 gentlemen of science in London and other parts. 

 Few men were better liked by private friends 

 as well for his knowledge as for his honesty, and 

 the genuine simplicity of his manners.* 



In addition to the various jobs already noticed 

 as keeping my master and myself fully employed, 

 I had others which fell exclusively to my lot to 

 execute; and, amongst these were the mathema- 

 tical works of Charles Hutton, who frequently 

 came into the room in which I worked, to inspect 

 what I was doing. He was always very civil, but 



* He died [at his house in the Pudding Chare], on the gth 

 December, 1819, aged 61 years, and was buried in St. John's 

 Church-yard, Newcastle. [There is a portrait of him by Parker, 

 who also etched it. George Gray was a misogynist, until a serious 

 illness for the moment perverted him to the belief that "man is not 

 born to live alone." While under the influence of this temporary 

 change in his opinions he married a shoemaker's widow; but after 

 her death declared that all the riches of Mexico and Peru should not 

 tempt him to repeat the experiment.] 



