274 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



when woodcuts seemed to claim something like 

 universal attention, and, fortunately for that art, 

 it was under the guidance of the ingenious John 

 Thurston,* who pencilled his designs, stroke by 

 stroke on the wood, with the utmost accuracy, 

 and it would appear that Nesbit was the first, 

 by his mechanical excellence, to do justice to 



and on the "Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell," 1795. His engraving 

 of Johnson's drawing of St. Nicholas's Church has already been referred 

 to. He went to London about 1799, was engaged inter alia upon 

 Craig's "Scripture Illustrated," 1806; Ackermann's "Religious Em- 

 blems," 1809; " Hudibras," 1811; Puckle's "Club," 1817; and 

 Northcote's " Fables," 1828-33. He did not remain in London ; but, 

 becoming possessed of independent means, he returned in 1815 to his 

 native place, continuing, however, to labour occasionally for the 

 booksellers. He visited the metropolis again in 1830, and died at 

 Queen's Elm, Brompton, in November, 1838. His most ambitious 

 block was " Rinaldoand Armida," from the " Gerusalemme Liberata," 

 engraved after Thurston for Savage's " Practical Hints on Decorative 

 Printing," 1822. He also supplied a portrait of Bewick, after Nichol- 

 son, to Charnley's "Select Fables" of 1820. As an engraver, he was 

 the best of Bewick's pupils.] 



* John Thurston was reared from a child at a place called the 

 Leazes, near Newcastle, where a burn separates a large pasture that 

 goes by that name from the Town Moor. His mother, who lived at 

 Scarbro', where the boy was born, had married a second husband, 

 who, it appears, was of a base character, and had married her solely 

 for her property. This her friends saw, and, to prevent her ruin, sent 

 her off incog, to the fore-named place, to be out of the way of the 

 worthless fellow, and my friend, John Anderson, surgeon, was deputed 

 to advance her the money necessary for her support. The boy was 

 afterwards sent to the academy of the ingenious Mr. Hornsey at 

 Scarbro' to finish his education, and with him he also learned to draw. 

 Mr. Hornsey made the designs for the Copper-plate Magazine and 

 other things, and was author of " Hornsey's Grammar." When 

 the youth had finished his' education, he was engaged to Mr. 

 Heath as an engraver ; but left it off, and wholly devoted his time to 

 making designs for wood engraving, and drawing them on the wood 

 for the wood-engravers. [Thurston was born in 1774 at Scarborough. 

 For a long time he was the chief designer upon wood in London, but 

 towards the close of his career he found a rival in William Harvey. 

 He died at Holloway in 1822, aged 48.] 



