34 



THOMA S BE WICK. 



have had sufficient strength of mind to make a deep impression on Bewick's 

 yet imperfectly formed character. This was Gilbert Gray, who had lately 

 settled in Newcastle as a bookbinder. He had been intended for a clergy- 

 man, but not liking their ways he travelled from his home at Aberdeen 

 to Edinburgh, entered the service of Allan Ramsay, the pastoral poet, as 

 shopman and binder of books, and after a sojourn there he removed to 

 Newcastle. 



"This singular and worthy man," relates Bewick, "was perhaps the most 

 invaluable acquaintance and friend I ever met with. His moral lectures and advice 

 to me formed a most important succedaneum to those imparted by my parents. 

 His wise remarks, his detestation of vice, his industry, and his temperance, crowned 

 with a most lively and cheerful disposition, altogether made him appear to me as 

 one of the best of characters. In his workshop I often spent my winter evenings." 



Bewick goes on to tell how a number of young men were also in the 

 habit of visiting Gray's shop, " many of whom," he says, " I have no doubt 

 he directed into the paths of truth and integrity." By steadily pursuing a 

 temperate mode of life he accumulated small sums of money, and " this 

 enabled him to get books of an entertaining and moral tendency printed and 

 circulated at a cheap rate. His great object was, by every possible means 

 to promote honourable feelings in the minds of youth, and to prepare them 

 for becoming good members of society." Gray was in the habit of sitting 

 beside Bewick whilst he was engraving, and being possessed of a reflective 

 mind which led him to think and speak much on the men and manners of the 

 vicinity, the two became intimate friends notwithstanding their disparity 

 of age.* 



There can be no doubt that the instruction received from Gray had a 

 powerful influence on Bewick. It is seen in the similarity of the two men's 



* Mr. Rufkin, in " Ariadne Florentina," quotes Bewick's eloquent description of Gray's character, which tells 

 " consummate and unchanging truth concerning the life, honour, and happiness of England." The passage is one of 

 the most notable in Bewick's writings. 



