96 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



environs. The first day I went alone, and saw 

 nobody I knew. On the second day, I fell in by 

 chance with Sergeant Hymers, in the Strand, 

 who, on seeing me, seemed quite surprised. He 

 held up both his hands he looked he laughed 

 shook me by the hand, over and over again, 

 and seemed not to know how to be kind enough. 

 He then took me back with him till he got 

 dressed ; and, when this was done, he made a 

 very handsome appearance indeed. The rest of 

 the day he devoted wholly to my service. He 

 first took me to the blackguard places in London. 

 I suppose this was done with a view to corroborate 

 the truth of the stories he had told me before, in 

 Newcastle. After I had seen enough of these 

 places, he took me to others better worth notice ; 

 and, having rambled about till I had seen a good 

 deal of the exterior as well as the interior of 

 London of which it would be superfluous to give 

 an account I sat down closely to work until I 

 got through the wood cuts which, through Isaac 

 Taylor's kindness, had been provided for me. I 

 then called upon Thomas Hodgson, printer, George 

 Court, Clerkenwell, who had also provided work 

 for me, to meet my arrival in London, and who 

 had impatiently waited for my assistance.* I was 



* Thomas Hodgson [see p. 61] had served his apprenticeship as 

 a printer to John White, Newcastle (before named) ; and, having 

 taken a liking to wood engraving, he had 'employed most of his 

 time in embellishing the endless number of old ballads and histories 

 printed at that office, with rude devices, as head-pieces to them. 

 .He was a most assiduous, careful, and recluse man. What he pub- 

 lished in London, I cannot enumerate ; but I understood he 

 employed some Germans, as well as myself, to cut blocks for him. 

 He also employed me to make designs for many of these cuts. 

 When he died, he left me a legacy of five pounds. This is the only 

 money that I have ever received that I have not wrought for. 



