1 68 THOMAS BEWICK. 



fashionable linen-drapery surrounded with floral decorations ; an eye for an 

 oculist's sign ; a set of three feathers in one newspaper and a sign in another 

 for an upholsterer ; a suspended sheep for a woollen-draper ; a naked foot for 

 a chiropodist; and a horse and jockey for a stallion advertisement. 



About 1 794 Bewick did a remarkably beautiful block for Graham, printer, 

 of Alnwick ; the foliage much richer and varied than usual, an impression being 

 given on the opposite page. The copper-plates done for the Society of Cord- 

 wainers and the " Hebbern Main " colliery are excellent; the sheaf of wheat 

 and anchor for the Cheap Flour Society also contains some careful work. Of 



this, Garret, in the "Bewick 

 Collector," says : — "In 

 1795, when corn and flour 

 were so dear in Newcastle, 

 a very respectable society 

 was founded by the gentry 

 to supply the poor with 

 bread. They got Bewick to 

 engrave this beautiful cut 

 for their manifestoes." 

 In 1795 Beilby and Bewick were employed to engrave plans of a canal, 

 which it was proposed to make from Newcastle to Carlisle. Bewick, in his 

 Memoir, says of this project, " My partner and self were busily engaged 



in engraving the plan After a great deal of scheming and 



manoeuvring, the whole of this great, this important national as well as local 

 undertaking was baffled and set aside." Bewick was engaged to labour for 

 the opposing parties, yet he heartily sympathized with the project, and 

 regretted the failure of the negotiations. The reason of this failure was not 

 far to seek; the coal owners " below bridge" fancied the undertaking might 

 hurt their trade, and, as Bewick says, "private interest was found to over- 

 power public good." 



