Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/493

451 PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS. 45 * easily persuaded by his old master, Beilby, to return to Newcastle, and enter into partnership with him his brother John becoming their joint apprentice. The publication of the illustrations to " Gay's Fables," and the "Select Fables," by the brothers, spread their reputation far and wide, and placed them far above competition in the art. In 1785, Thomas Bewick began the cuts for his " History of Quadru- peds," though the work was not completed and pub- lished until 1790. The "text," or literary matter, was contributed by his partner, Beilby, but it was of course on account of the illustrations that three large editions were called for within three years. In this successful venture, the two partners were associated with a printer of the name of Hodgson, and unfortun- ately, after his death, the arrangement was made the grounds of dispute by his widow, and Bewick was compelled to remove the printing of the work to another establishment. In 1797 appeared the first volume of the " History of British Birds," and almost immediately afterwards, Beilby retired from the partnership, leaving Bewick to produce and compile the work alone. The tail-pieces in the first edition of the Birds are considered Bewick's chefs d'ceuvres as Professor Wilson says, " There is a moral in every tail-piece a sermon in every vignette. . . . His books lie on our parlour, bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room and study tables, and are never out of place or time. Happy old man ! The delight of childhood, manhood, decaying age !" After founding a famous school for wood-engravers at Newcastle William Harvey was among his pupils Bewick died in 1828, leaving the business to his son, Mr. R. E. Bewick.