140 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



and after some bargain-making it was agreed that 

 he was for a few years to be bound to Mr. Slack 

 as a pressman, for which he was to be paid eight 

 shillings per week. At that time and with this 

 wage, he contrived to maintain himself and to pay 

 out of it for a night-school education, under the 

 Rev. John Baillie.* His progress was truly 

 astonishing in figures, languages, the use of the 

 globes, &c. ; but his memory was so tenacious 

 that he retained whatever he learned, and he could 

 repeat the longest harangue (as far as I was able 

 to judge) verbatim. I once had an opportunity of 

 witnessing this, in his repeating the whole of a 

 charity sermon, preached by the eloquent the Rev. 

 Dr. Scott, of Simonburn. While he was employed 

 in the drudgery of the printing press, he, at the 

 same time, made himself master of the business 

 of a compositor, and presently became a secondary 

 foreman or manager under Robert Carr,t who had 

 long conducted the business in that office. I do 

 not recollect how long he remained in Mr. Slack's 

 employment, but shortly after he left him, he 

 married a young woman of respectable parentage, 

 who had long been in love with him. It happened 

 that the printing of a Bible in numbers had been 

 established ; but the editor, either from mis- 

 management, or something amiss, was on the 

 verge of a failure. In this state of affairs, Lawson 

 turned his attention to the business, and applied to 



[* The Rev. John Baillie, author of " Lectures on the Revelations," 

 "Impartial History of Newcastle," 1801, etc., died in Gateshead 

 12 December, 1806, aged 66.] 



f Mr. Carr was a man of literary attainments, and was considered 

 as respectable for his talents as a poet. He was the friend and asso- 

 ciate of Cunningham. [He died June 4, 1783, JEt. 45.] 



