MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 273 



would have become great as a painter ; but a deli- 

 cate constitution and want of stamina prevented 

 this. I have often thought it was a great mistake 

 in parents, and a very common one, to fix upon 

 some sedentary employment for their tender deli- 

 cate boy, when, perhaps, had he been sent to sea, 

 or some other out-door work, where he would be 

 exposed to fresh air and exercise, he might have 

 become a healthy stout and hale man. My friends 

 having often expressed a wish that I would give 

 some account of my pupils has occasioned me to 

 dwell thus long upon that of Robert Johnson ; but I 

 think it unnecessary to notice others who were not 

 gifted with talents, and some others again who had 

 neither one good property nor another, and with 

 whom I had much vexation and reason to com- 

 plain. The first of my pupils who made a figure 

 in London, after my brother, as a wood-engraver, 

 was Charlton Nesbit.* He went at a nick of time 



death. That in his anxiety to complete his labour, he would sit all 

 day in a room without a fire, a violent cold was' the consequence, 

 which, neglected, increased to a fever, ' it flew to his brain, and, 

 terrible to relate, he was bound with ropes, beat, and treated like a 

 madman.' This treatment was discontinued on the accidental arrival 

 of a physician, who ordered blisters, and poor Johnson died in peace. 

 A memorial was cut in wood, from one of his own designs, by his 

 friend and fellow-apprentice, Mr. Charlton Nesbit. From this wood- 

 cut a limited number of impressions was taken off, with letter-press, 

 recording his death, &c., attached. It is a scene in a country church- 

 yard by moonlight, representing a female in tears leaning on a tomb 

 inscribed : 'In memory of R. Johnson, 1796.' A stone is erected in 

 Ovingham church-yard, recording his early fate." A copy of both 

 stone and memorial are to be found in Chatto's "Treatise on Wood 

 Engraving.''] 



* Charlton Nesbit was born in 1775, being the son of a keelrnan 

 at Swalwell in Durham. About 1789 he was apprenticed to Beilby 

 and Bewick; and he is said to have worked on the "Birds," 1797, 



2 K 



