MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 267 



already noticed my brother John as my first pupil,* 

 and therefore have little further to say respecting 

 him, only adding that nature seemed to have 

 befitted him for becoming a first-rate wood- 

 engraver, but, at the time he was with me, the 

 thoughts of aiming at excellence, did not enter 

 into our heads, and he left this world at the time 

 when it was only begun to be looked upon as a 

 matter of any interest. Our first apprentice was 

 John Laws, who was brought up as a silver 

 engraver, and I think he never touched upon the 

 wood. His turn was directed to the ornamental, 

 and chiefly in the branch of what is called bright 

 engraving, and at this kind of work he excelled, 

 and is perhaps the best at this day. With it 

 he also follows the business of a farmer, at 

 Heddon Laws, the place of his nativity. We 

 greatly respected him for his honesty, sobriety, 

 civil deportment and attention. The next for 

 whom we had a great regard, for the like 

 reasons, was John Johnson,t whom we put to do 

 engraving on wood as well as other kinds of 

 work. I think he would have shone out in the 

 former branch, but he died of a fever, at about 

 the age of 22 when only beginning to give 

 great promise of his future excellence. Our next 

 apprentice was Robert Johnson, who did not 

 incline to do w r ood -cutting, and, preferring copper- 

 plate engraving, he was almost wholly employed 



[* Vide Chapter viii]. 



[f John Johnson, from a Memorandum among the Bewick MSS., 

 was apprenticed to Beilby and Bewick at Christmas, 1782. He is 

 said to have worked on the "Birds;" and he certainly designed the 

 wood-cut of "The Hermit," engraved by Thomas Bewick for the 

 "Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell," 1795. He was Robert John- 

 son's cousin.] 



