THOMAS BEWICK. 



on the opposite bank of the river, in the place then called the Back Lane, 

 now No. 19, West Street, in the township of Gateshead-on-Tyne. In those 

 days this was a vastly different place from what it is in 1882. At the present 

 time West Street is completely built round with dwellings and workshops, 

 is fairly busy with traffic, often dingy from the smoke of neighbouring 

 furnaces, and not at all a desirable place for an artist to live in. Seventy years 

 ago, however, there were the verdant meadows of the Barney Close, with 

 cultivated fields and a long stretch of pleasant country by the side of the 

 water, and with the picturesque Windmill Hill close at hand, all forming an 

 outlook at any time delightful, and at sunset peculiarly attractive. From 

 the Back Lane Bewick's customary way to business was down the Bottle 

 Bank to the bridge over the Tyne (now the Low Bridge), and up to his 

 workshop in St. Nicholas's Churchyard through the Sand-hill, the Side, Dean 

 Street, and the Churchyard Stairs. In all these places Bewick had friends 

 and acquaintances, whom he either merely saluted and passed by, or stopped 

 to have a gossip with about the topics of the day. 



Bewick having now become a famous man, many of his admirers desired to 

 possess his portrait. In 1798 there was published the weak copper-plate by 

 T. A. Kidd, after a painting by Miss Kirkley, of " Thomas Bewick, Restorer 

 of the Art of Engraving on Wood," previously described. J. Summerfield 

 engraved a plate from a miniature by Murphy, painted about the beginning 

 of the century, and published it on November 1st, 1815. The " Graphic 

 Illustrator," 1834, gives an interesting letter, addressed to Summerfield, from 

 Bewick, concerning this engraving, where he says, under date Newcastle, 

 3rd January, 1814 : — 



" Dear Sir, — I have just been with Mr. Busby, who informs me that he will 

 pack up his parcel which is to contain this & the portrait of me, by Mr. Murphy, 

 this Evening. — I fear the portrait of me, which he has in hand, will not be finished 

 to send along with the other — but I don't know whether or not — he has, however, 

 promised me to send you his remarks upon Mr. Murphy's, which he examined & 

 compared with the Original — and considering the length of time it has been done 



