Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn House, Eltringham, Northumberland in August of 1753, the eldest of eight children. Early on he demonstrated a talent for art by drawing on the hearthstones of his family home and filling the margins of his school books with pencil sketches of the surrounding flora and fauna. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Newcastle engraver Ralph Beilby. Most of the work of the shop was in metal engraving, but occasionally there was work in woodcuts, especially for children's books.