With hospitable haste he rose,
And wak’d his sleeping fire:
And snatching up a lighted brand,
Forth hied the reverend sire.
****
He fought till more assistance came;
The Scots were overthrown;
Thus freed me, captive, from their bands,
To make me more his own.
The illustrations of “The Hermit of Warkworth” are, upon the whole, very creditable, and are well calculated to enhance the value of the book, but as works of art some few of them fall far short of many of Craig or Bewick’s other productions.
John Catnach also printed and published a series of Juvenile Works, as “The Royal Play Book: or, Children’s Friend. A Present for Little Masters and Misses.” “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin, &c. Adorned with Cuts.—Which in many cases were the early productions of Thomas Bewick.—Alnwick: Sold Wholesale and Retail by J. Catnach, at his Toy-Book Manufactory.”
In the year 1807, John Catnach took an apprentice—a lad named Mark Smith, of whom more anon; a few months afterwards he entered into partnership with a Mr. William Davison, who was a native of Ponteland, in the county of Northumberland, but he duly served his apprenticeship as a chemist and druggist to Mr. Hind, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and for whom he ever cherished a fond regard. The union was not of long duration—certainly under two years—but it is very remarkable that two such men should have been brought together, for experience has shown that they were both morally and socially, the very opposite of each other.
During the partnership: Mr. Davison held his business of chemist, &c., in Bondgate-street; while the printing and publishing continued at Narrowgate-street, and among the works published by the firm of Catnach and Davison we may record:—