THOMAS BEWICK. 



85 



step in such a serious matter, and his choice fell on one who was not found 

 lacking in her duty. 



Bewick's mother had desired to see her son married before her death, and 

 even proposed that he should pay court to a maiden of whom report spoke 

 well ; but though Bewick dutifully obeyed in so far as visiting the lady, he 

 found her quite unsuitable to his idea of what a wife should be. After 

 recovering from the gloom caused by the deaths in the family he married 

 Isabella Elliot, the daughter of Robert Elliot, of Ovingham, close to his own 

 birthplace. Living all her youth so near Bewick's father's house, they were 

 on long-standing terms of intimacy.* "I had seen her," Bewick says, "in 

 prosperity and in adversity, and in the latter state she appeared to me to 

 the greatest advantage. In this she soared above her sex, my determination 

 was fixed, and in due time we were married." The marriage took place in 

 the quaint and still perfect old church of St. John, in what is now called 

 West Grainger Street, Newcastle, on the 20th of April, 1786. t The entry 

 of the marriage is still to be seen among the records of the church. It 

 runs thus: — "Thomas Bewick & Isabella Elliot both of this Chapelry were 

 married in this chapel by Licence this Twentieth Day of April 1786 by me 

 Jn°- Brown curate. This Marriage was solemnized between us (signed) 

 Thomas Bewick Isabella Elliott In the Presence of us (signed) Sarah 

 Hunneyman Gilfrid Ward." 



The signature of Bewick is bold, and quite like his usual writing at less 

 exciting moments ; that of his wife is of one not so perfectly accustomed to 

 use her pen, but is still good plain writing. She spelled her name, however, 



* Dovaston, in the Magazine of Natural History, tells a story to the effect that Bewick, when a boy, was in the 

 habit of annoying in church the young girls who happened to be near him. Once, he says, a " winsome lass," burn- 

 ing with indignation, jumped up and exclaimed loudly to the parson, "Oh, sir, guide Thomas Bewick; " upon 

 which she got the youth a flogging. This lass, Dovaston says, was Isabella Elliot, his future wife. 



t Bewick at this time was thirty years old. His wife was about the same age, but the year of her birth is 

 differently given : her tombstone states she was seventy.two when she died in 1826, while a tablet inside Ovingham 

 Church says she was bom on August 12th, 1752. 



