268 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



in that way, and in it attained to great excellence. 

 Besides that, he became great as a draughtsman 

 and colourist ; but as he was of so delicate a 

 constitution that he could not bear confinement, 

 we, for that reason, set him to work to make 

 sketches and views, where he had both air and 

 exercise. It may be necessary to give a more 

 detailed history than ordinary of this boy, on 

 account of the unceasing pains I bestowed upon 

 his tuition, and my reasons for doing so. His 

 mother had been long a servant in father's house, 

 where she became a great favourite, and like one 

 of our family. When she married, this boy Robert 

 was her first-born; and when he was christened 

 I was to have been his godfather. This however 

 did not happen, for while I was, for that purpose, 

 on my road near to Ovingham, where the ceremony 

 was to be performed, being only about 16 or 

 1 7 years old and exceedingly bashful, I could 

 not think of appearing before a congregation of 

 people, and when, on getting to the top of the 

 "pantin brae," the bells began to ring in for 

 church, I felt so abashed at the thought of what I 

 had to do that I " turned tail" went a little 

 back, and crossed the river upon the top of the 

 Fishermen's Weir by stepping from one stob to 

 another, which are driven in to support the wicker 

 work and stones of which the weir is formed. I 

 then went to Cherryburn, and after getting some 

 refreshment, returned again to Newcastle. In the 

 meantime my father and mother stood sponsors 

 for the child. As the boy grew up, he having 

 been almost constantly told he was to be my 

 apprentice, he looked up to me as a kind of deity, 

 and having been, at every opportunity, kept closely 



