106 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



this; but a memoir of him was published in the 

 "Analytical Magazine" at the time, together with 

 a letter I had written to him sometime before 

 his death, which he never answered.* He was, in his 

 day, accounted the best engraver of embellishments 

 for books, most of which he designed himself. The 

 frontispiece to the first edition of "Cunningham's 

 Poems" was one of his early productions; and at 

 that time my friend Pollard and myself thought 

 it was the best thing that ever was done.t 



[* Either Bewick's memory must have served him ill, or " The 

 Analytical Magazine " is extremely rare, since it is not to be found 

 in the British Museum. But there is a memoir of Isaac Taylor, 

 including the above-mentioned letter (dated 18 April, 1806, and send- 

 ing a copy of the " British Birds"), in vol. iii. of the " Literary 

 Panorama" (January, 1808). Stothard's old rival is so nearly for- 

 gotten that he deserves a note. He was born 13 December, 1730, at 

 Worcester, in the parish of St. Michael in Bedwardine, where his 

 father was a brass founder. Like Hogarth, he had been brought up 

 as a silverplate engraver. But nature, and some of the pictures of 

 Marcellus Laroon, then resident in Worcester, gave him ambitions as 

 an artist; and, in 1752, he came to London, walking, like Boydell 

 before him, by the side of the waggon. His first long engagement 

 was with Jeffries, the geographer at the corner of St. Martin's Lane, 

 whose niece he married. While with this master, he worked on 

 plates for the " Gentleman's Magazine" and other books. After- 

 wards he supplied engravings for Tooke's " Pantheon" and " Don 

 Quixote," rapidly, gaining reputation as a facile designer of "embel- 

 lishments." His frontispieces to Bickerstaffe's " Daphne and 

 Amyntor," 1766; to the same author's "Love in a Village" and 

 "The Maid of the Mill," 1767; to Kelly's " False Delicacy," 1768; 

 and Goldsmith's " Deserted Village," 1770, were all popular in their 

 day. But his chef d'tziwre was a set of illustrations to " Sir Charles 

 Grandison," 1778, recently [1886] re-issued by Messrs. Field and 

 Tuer. These afford an excellent example of his very thorough and 

 genuine " manner," and his minute attention to costume and acces- 

 sories. In 1774 he was made secretary to the Incorporated Society 

 of Artists. For the last twenty years of his life he practically with- 

 drew from business, dying in retirement at Edmonton, 17 October, 

 1807, aged 77. His pupil Pollard, above referred to, ended a 

 chequered career of varied activities, in May, 1838.] 



f John Cunningham, the pastoral poet, died September, [18,] 1773, 

 aged 44 years, and was buried in St. John's Church Yard, Newcastle 

 [on September 20. His poems were first published in 1766. He 



