28 
MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 
selves of their labours, some salutary moral lesson, 
as to their humane treatment ; or to expose, by per- 
haps the most cutting possible satire, the cruelty of 
those who ill-treat them. But a great proportion of 
them express, in a way of dry humour peculiar to 
himself, the artist’s particular notions of men and 
things, the passing events of the day, &c. &c. ; and 
exhibit often such ludicrous, and, in a few instances, 
such serious and even awful, combinations of ideas, 
as could not perhaps have been developed so for- 
cibly in any other way. 
From the moment of the publication of this vo- 
lume, the fame of Thomas Bewick was established 
on a foundation not to be shaken. It has passed 
through seven large editions, with continually grow- 
ing improvements. 
It was observed before, that Mr Bewick’s younger 
brother, John, was apprenticed to Mr Beilby and 
himself. He naturally followed the line of engrav- 
ing so successfully struck out by his brother. At 
the close of his apprenticeship, he removed to Lon- 
don, where he soon became very eminent as a wood- 
engraver ; indeed, in some respects, he might be 
said to excel the elder Bewick. This naturally in- 
duced Mr William Bulmer, the spirited proprietor 
of the “ Shakspeare Press,” himself a Newcastle 
