MKMOIK OK THOMAS BKXVITK . 107 



The same kind persuasions were urged upon me 

 by Mr. Hodgson, to remain in London, as had 

 been used by Mr. Taylor, which ended in a similar 

 way. The former, however, went further, and told 

 me that, if I were determined upon leaving London, 

 and would continue to work for him in Newcastle, 

 he would furnish me with plenty of it; and that he 

 would begin by giving me as much as would keep 

 me employed for two years. This was particularly 

 pleasing to me, because I could not bear the 

 thoughts of beginning business in Newcastle in 

 opposition to my old master, for whom I had the 

 greatest respect, this to me appeared like " bring 

 up chickens to pick out your eyes." 



Having spent the evening till a late hour with 

 my friends at the "George," in Brook Street, and 

 in the morning taken leave of my landlord and 

 landlady, Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, and their family, 

 in Wharton's Court, Holborn, I then posted off to 

 the Pool, and got on board a collier; and, after a 

 very short passage, arrived in sight of St. Nicholas's 

 Church steeple, about the 22nd Juney 1777. 



was an actor as well as verse writer, and, at seventeen, had even 

 written a piece called " Love in a Mist ; or, the Lass of Spirit ;" 

 which was performed at Newcastle. He had a kind protectress in 

 clever Mrs. Slack of the " Newcastle Chronicle." (See p. 64.) There 

 is a good portrait of Cunningham by Bewick, sketched from seeing 

 him in the streets, as he could not be induced to sit.] 



