observing the habits of animals; and it was his fondness for this study
that gave rise, while he was yet a boy, to his first attempts in drawing.
Long before he had received instruction in that art, he used to delineate
his favourites of the lower creation with great accuracy and spirit. His
introduction to the regular study of his future profession was purely
accidental. He was in the habit of exercising his genius by covering the
walls and doors of the houses in his native village with his sketches in
chalk. Some of these performances one day chanced to attract the attention
of a Mr. Beilby, a copper-plate engraver of Newcastle, as he was passing
through Cherryburn; and he was so much struck with the talent they
displayed that he sought out the young artist, and obtained his father's
consent to take him with him to be his apprentice. This was in the year
1767. In the following year Bewick executed his first wood-cut for Dr.
Button's Treatise on Navigation, the diagrams for which work were, at the
suggestion of Mr. Beilby, engraved on wood, and printed with the
letter-press, instead of being on copper and stitched in with the sheets.
Bewick executed the whole of the cuts for Dr. Button's work with so much
accuracy, and a finish so greatly beyond what had usually been attained in
that species of work, that Mr. Beilby advised him to give his chief
attention henceforward to wood-engraving, and make it his profession. He
did so during the remainder of his apprenticeship, at the expiration of
which he repaired to London, and obtained employment in his trade. He soon
returned to the country, and in 1777 he entered into partnership with his
former master, Mr. Beilby. Bewick with his taste for rural scenery and
enjoyments and the observation of nature, doubtless found little to
interest him in London; nor even after he had obtained his highest
celebrity, did he ever again think of establishing himself in the
metropolis. He spent the remainder of his life in his native district.

At the time of Bewick's first entering into active life, the art of