Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/913

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HISTQRY OF PRINTING.

the court shall tliiuk proper objects of this dona- tion. September 18, 1818, transferred to the company £1,500 three per cent consolidated an- nuities ; in trust to give to every youth bound at their hall, a neatly-bound church of England prayer-book, as printed by his majesty's printer in London, bound up with the new version of

Esalms. The number of prayer-books thus to e disposed of, are taken at two hundred, which, at a presumed price of 2t. 7d. each, will cost £25 16». 8d. Then to give yearly to two of his warehousemen (named) £6 6s. each. Also to " such warehouseman, or binder, or stationer, or other person in the class to whom the court has been accustomed to give such annuities, above sixty years of age," £6 6t. The residue of 5s. 4d. and whatever residue may be left from the two hundred prayer-books not being wanted, or from the cost being less, to be applicable for such purposes as the court shall think proper.

1828, Oct. 30. Died, James Lynch, book- seller and stationer, Duke-street, Liverpool, aged seventy years.

1628, A^ov. 8. Died, Thomas' Bewick, the celebrated engraver on wood, to whom the lovers of science and literature lies under deep obliga- tion, as the re-inventor of the xylogruphic art. Thomas Bewick, was born on the 12th August, 1753, at Cherry Bum, in the parish of Oving- ham, and county of Northumberland. The choice of a profession for him was determined by the skill in drawing which he very early evinced. Like most boys whose bias of mind towards any pursuit is peculiarly strong, he early indicated Uie bent of nis genius by sketching figures with chalk on the walls and doors of almost every bouse in Cheny Bum. At the age of fourteen he was bound apprentice to Mr. Ralph Beilby, of Newcastle, a respectable engra- ver, and one who took delight in instracUng his pupils and encouraging their rising talents. Whether young Bewick would at an after period of life, and without the suggestion of others, have directed his attention to wood-cutting, it is difficult to say, but at all events an accidental circumstance determined his future career in the arts. The celebrated Dr. Hutton,* at that time a schoolmaster in Newcastle, was preparing in 1770 his great work on mensuration, and having applied to Mr. Beilby to supply copper plates of the mathematical figures, he was advised to employ wood-cuts instead. The great mathe- matician acceded to this, proposal, and Mr. Beilby entrusted the execution of them to his apprentice. With such beauty and accuracy were they finished, that the young engraver was advised by his master to turn his chief attention to this long-neglected art, and the consequence

mathematics In the royal mlUtary academy at Woolwich, was born at Newcastle, Aug. u, 1737, and died at Charlton, Jan. 27, 1893. For the very eminent services which Dr. Hutton had rendered to the board of ordnance, he was rewarded with a lilieral pension from f^vcrnment, on liis rcsignioK, through ill health, in I807, ttam his duties at Woolwich. He enriched the PhUompMcal TratuaeMona wit^ many valuable papers : and conferred some Ul>cral benefactloas to his native town.
 * Charles Hutton, LL.D. P. R. 8. &c. late professor of

was a succession of mathematical uorks illiu- trated with very beautiful diagrams engraved on wood. After his apprenticeship had expired, Bewick spent a short time in the metropolis, and also paid a visit to Scotland, after which he returned to Newcastle, and became a partner io his master's business. His brother John* became their joint apprentice. The publication of an edition of Gay's Fables afibrded an opportunity for the Bewicks displaying their talents in the higher branches of wood-engraving, by the illustrations which they furnished for the work. One of these, the old hound, obtained the pre- mium offered by the society of arts for the best specimen of wood-engraving, in 1775. An im- pression of this may be seen in the memoir which is prefixed to Select Fables,^ printed for Emerson Chamley, Newcastle, 1820, and sold in London by Baldwin and Cradock. The Fahia of Gay were published in 1 779, and in 1784, the appearance of a new edition of Select FabUt, with an entire new set of cuts by the Bewicb, spread far and wide their reputation, and placed them above competition in the art. The pub- lication of the History of Quadrupeds, which, after being carefully prepared, made its appear- ance in 17i/0. The prospectus of this great work was the means of introducing him to a gentleman who possessed a museum, remarkable for the number and variety of its specimens of winged and quadruped animals, living and dead, and of these Mr. Bewick was invited to take drawings, which tended greatly to enrich all his subsequent publications. The pictorial embel- lishments exhibit every excellence which engrav- ings ought to possess — boldness of design, variety and exactness of attitude, correctness of drawing, and discrimination of general character. A spirit of life and animation per^'aded every figure, and thus a lively idea of^cach different animal it conveyed. Short descriptions accompanied the engravings, chiefly drawn up by Mr. Bewick') coadjutors, Messrs. Hodgson and Beilby, but subject, it is highly probable, to his correctiom and additions. A great and unexpected charm belonged to the History of Quadrupeds — this was the profusion of vignettes and tail-pieces with which the whole volume was adorned. These exhibited remarkable inventive genius, and a skill in catching the very lineaments b which the specific expression of the species re- sides, never before equalled. Under the auspices of their friend and fellow-townsman, William Bulmer, of the Shakspeare press, London, the Bewicks embellished the Deserted Village of Goldsmith, the Hermit of Pamell, and the Chatt of Sommcrville4 all of which met with success. In 1797 appeared the first volume of the History of British Birds, comprLiing the Land Birds, the letter-press being furnished by Mr. BeUby. Before the publication of the second volume on British Water Birds, a separation of interests

< Of whom see a notice at page 7Bg, mUe, t Thomas Saint, printer of the lleaaullt Cmtrnl, in 1776, printed an edition of Select Faila. t See page 912, post.