i>kesident's address. 273 



in a copybook ; he quietly filled a page with these to him unin- 

 teresting characters, and at the bottom wrote in a fair round hand 

 ''Thomas Sopwith, his copy." From that time he ceased from 

 pothooks and hangers ! He learned mathematics under Mr. 

 Henry Atkinson, of the High Bridge, at that time a very cele- 

 brated and popular teacher of arithmetic and mathematics. 



On leaving school he was sent to Mr. Maxwell, a surgeon in 

 good practice, living near his father, but he does not appear to 

 have taken kindly to the position in which he was placed, and 

 for a few years he was absent from Newcastle. On his return he 

 was apprenticed to his father and uncle, well-known cabinet- 

 makers in Newcastle, became afterwards a partner, and eventu- 

 ally took the management of the business with his cousin, Mr. 

 John Sopwith. 



When at school he was known for his fondness for drawing, 

 and during his management of the business he evinced much in- 

 genuity and accuracy, and showed a taste and an originality in 

 designing and mechanical construction in advance of his occupa- 

 tion. He invented and had constructed the curious and useful 

 Monocleid cabinet or business table, comprising drawers, compart- 

 ments, and other conveniences, which could be entirely closed by 

 a spring, and the whole opened by one key. 



His faculties expanding and strengthening he made designs of 

 much architectural merit, for example one for the New Gaol of 

 Newcastle in 1822 ; this is represented in his Treatise on Isomet- 

 rical Drawing, PI. 26. ''A model," he says, ''of the design 

 was made at the request of the Commissioners, who presented 

 the author with ten guineas, at that time a gratifying recompense 

 for the labour bestowed on the first attempt at architectural de- 

 sign he had ever made." He contributed many of the illustrative 

 vignettes and views of churches and country seats to Hodgson's 

 Histoiy of Northumberland. He surveyed and "laid out" a new 

 line of road from Belsay to Otterburn. 



Previously to 1834 he had published "Historical and Descri])- 

 tive Account of All Saints' Church, illustrated with Plans, etc.;" 

 and also "Eight Views of Pountains Abbey, engraved on copper, 

 from drawings by Metcalf and Curmichael, with an Historical and 



