THOMAS BEWICK. 



19 



coursed to the younger on the many temptations he would be confronted with, 

 and how he might avoid them ; he spoke of truth, honesty, and religion ; he 

 impressed his son with feelings the boy had never previously considered ; he 

 instilled sentiments of humility into his son's mind; and he spoke practically 

 of the business they had more immediately in hand. " He urgently impressed 

 upon me," Bewick records, "to do my duty to my master, in faithfully and 

 obediently fulfilling all his commands, to be beforehand in meeting his 

 wishes, and, in particular, to be always upon my guard against listening 

 to the insinuations and the wicked advice of worthless persons whom I would 

 find ever ready to poison my ear against him." 



Ralph Beilby was only twenty-four years old when Bewick was apprenticed 

 to him. He was the third son of a once well-to-do goldsmith and jeweller in 

 Durham, who had become insolvent and removed to Gateshead-on-Tyne, 

 opposite Newcastle. The goldsmith's eldest son, Richard, was apprenticed in 

 Birmingham, and there learned the business of seal engraving. William, the 

 second son, was taught to enamel and paint on glass in the same town. Richard 

 taught Ralph, Bewick's master, seal cutting, and William taught a younger 

 brother and sister what he had learned. Ralph Beilby was considered by his 

 apprentice to be one of the best masters for teaching he could have obtained ; 

 he obliged his assistant to put his hand to all descriptions of work, fine or 

 coarse, and thus Bewick had, in after-life, many more resources than most 

 engravers when he desired to accomplish any end to assist him in business. 



When the brothers Beilby visited Cherryburn to see for themselves what 

 the boy was like of whom the godmother spoke so well,* young Bewick 

 had the opportunity to go either with William or Ralph Beilby; he, "liking 

 the look and deportment of Ralph the best, gave the preference to him," and 

 he goes on to say, " My grandmother having left me twenty pounds for an 



* It is stated in an account of Thomas Bewick which appears in the "Annual Biography," vol. xiv., that 

 Beilby accidentally discovered the boy at work making chalk drawings on barn-doors, and thus was led to 

 engage him. 



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