144 



JOHN BEWICK. 



his conduct was all that could be desired, and he was highly respected and 

 esteemed. He was as industrious in London," Thomas continues, " as he had 

 been with us. He was almost entirely employed by the publishers and book- 

 sellers in designing and cutting an endless variety of blocks for them. He 

 was extremely quick at his work, and did it at a very low rate." In a letter 

 dated January 9th, 1788, published in the Transactions of the Newcastle 

 Natural History Society for 1878, Thomas refers to the fact of his brother's 

 working direct for the engravers, and he gives him fraternal counsel as to his 

 greatest failing, that of being impatient with his labour. " I am glad," says 

 Thomas, " to find you have begun on your own bottom, and I would earnestly 

 recommend you to establish your character by taking uncommon pains with 

 what work you do. I hope it will in the end turn better out than doing it 

 slightly." John certainly took this to heart, and his later works are much 

 more careful than his impetuous early ones, but some of the first cuts he did in 

 London are of the poorest quality, and do much to damage his reputation as 

 a conscientious artist. 



Before describing the volumes which contain prints the undoubted work of 

 John Bewick when he was resident in London, it may be well to refer to 

 the cuts in a publication which, if done by him at all, must have been 

 executed before he left Newcastle. This is the i2mo edition called " Choice 

 Emblems; or, Riley's Choice Emblems," first issued in 1772 and 1775. In 

 the third edition, published in 1779, there are nineteen new cuts added to the 

 previous forty-six. In Bell's Catalogue of Bewick's Works (1851) these are 

 set down as the work of John Bewick, while Hugo, in the " Bewick Collector," 

 (1866) expresses a doubt of their genuineness. In the first place, it is 

 to be observed that John only began his apprenticeship in 1777, and he 

 remained some years with his brother, so he could not have done them in 

 London, as Bell states. It is just possible, nevertheless, for Bell seldom made 

 a complete mistake, that he wrought them in Newcastle, and they are cer- 

 tainly poor enough to be the work of a second years' apprentice. 



