JOHN BEWICK. 



i43 



designs were, as a rule, so excellent that the method of production may easily 

 be overlooked. 



John Bewick made a drawing of the house at Cherryburn in 1781, and 

 commenced to engrave it, but left it unfinished. It was many years afterwards 

 completed by Thomas. A few early impressions were taken from the block, 

 which show variation in the height of the tree in front of the cottage, and also 

 in the foliage at the corner where is written " Drawn by John Bewick, 1781." 

 The cut was employed for the frontispiece of Bewick's Memoir, but the 

 general result is not altogether satisfactory. 



After John Bewick had remained about five years with his brother, the 

 apprenticeship begun in 1777 was broken off. Thomas relates that John 

 diverged a little from the strict path of duty, and that he was well lectured in 

 consequence ; but the young man — John was now twenty-two — did not care to 

 benefit by the experience of the elder, and declined to be dictated to, as he 

 termed it. These scoldings happening frequently without attaining any 

 satisfactory results, the brothers quarrelled, and finally separated. John took 

 leave of the north, and thinking of the advantages and honours to be 

 gained in far-off London, he turned his face eagerly towards the metropolis, 

 the place which his brother despised, and was glad to make his way out of, 

 but in which the younger trusted to attain distinction. He thought more of 

 having people around him pursuing his own profession than did his brother ; 

 and he believed in being always at the head-quarters of the kingdom, where 

 work was more plentiful, if not always of a better class. London was then 

 what it is now becoming more emphatically every day, the special market- 

 place for those who mix in artistic or literary transactions ; and John, no doubt, 

 felt that there he would be able to meet and bargain with publishers who, ii 

 more exacting, commanded a wider constituency than any provincial town, and 

 might thus bring him speedier renown than was to be gained anywhere else. 



When John Bewick arrived in the metropolis he found plenty of work to 

 do. He was there, his brother mentions, " freed from his former associates; 



