THOMAS BEWICK. 



73 



Hymns and Moral Songs, adapted to the capacities of young people, 

 on the several duties and incidents of life ; adorned with elegant wood- 

 cuts to impress more lasting ideas of each subject upon the mind than can be 

 attained by those in common use," the cuts being in many cases from the 

 blocks previously employed in works issued from this press. In the spring 

 of 1 78 1 Bewick also executed a cut for Matthew Hall, innkeeper, which was 

 inserted at the head of an advertisement announcing that Hall had left 

 the Black Swan Inn, and had purchased and entered upon the Cock Inn, Head 

 of the Side, Newcastle, and adding, "where he hopes to merit the appro- 

 bation of his friends and the public. May 25th, 1781." This cut was a cock 

 with farmyard in the background, which Hall used for a heading to his bar 

 bills. Hugo says that this was the cut mentioned by Atkinson as having 

 been done early in Bewick's apprenticeship; but if this were so, it must have 

 been done for an earlier occupant, because Bewick at the time of Hall's 

 entry into the business was twenty-seven years of age, and of course long 

 past his apprenticeship. 



In 1782 Hargrove's " History of the Castle, Town, and Forest of Knares- 

 borough " was published. It has a pretty cut of a coat of arms (a rampant 

 lion) leaning against a tree. The border of the shield is simple, but being 

 nearly all black, it contrasts vividly and charmingly with the white ground 

 on which the lion rears itself. 



In the " Supplement to the History of Robinson Crusoe," Saint, New- 

 castle, 1782, there are a frontispiece and three small cuts attributed to 

 Bewick. The first, of Crusoe, is very poor, and not like his work, but the 

 others, of Old Zigzag listening to the goldfinches, with a " poor little Jack 

 Ass" and a Cock, are all fairly well done, being executed in the manner of 

 " Tommy Trip" and the 1776 Fables. 



Towards the end of 1782 or the commencement of 1783 Bewick was 

 commissioned by Saint to prepare a set of cuts for a new edition of the Fables 

 that he proposed to publish, and in 1784 the work was ready. This book 



