Whilst I was engaged with figures of the Water-Birds, and the Vignettes, and writing the History, I was greatly retarded by being obliged often to lay that work aside, to do various other jobs in the wood engraving, and also the work of the shop, for my customers in the town, particularly writing engraving, which, I may say, I was obliged to learn and to pursue after Mr. Beilby left me. The most interesting part of this kind of work was plates for bank notes; but, as one of the most important of these was a five pound note for the Carlisle Bank, which attracted much notice, it may be right to give some account of it. It happened, one evening, that, whilst I was in company with George Losh, Esq., who was in some way connected with that bank, he asked me if I could engrave a bank note that could not be easily forged. In reply, I told him I thought I could. “Then,” said he, “do it immediately;” and I lost no time in beginning upon it. I had, at that time, never seen a ruling machine, nor the beautiful engine-turning lately brought into use by Perkins, Fairman, and Heath, which were at that time, I believe, utterly unknown. I however, proceeded with my plate, and my object was to make the device look like a wood cut; and in this, though a first attempt, I succeeded; and the number of impressions wanted were sent to Carlisle.
Soon after this, I was told by Sir T. F—, Bart., that his brother, who held some office under government, and was much with the King—George III., whose curiosity was insatiable as to everything relative to the arts—had got one of these bank notes. Sir T. F—’s brother showed it to the King, who greatly admired and approved of it. About two years after this, in the year 1801, Samuel Thornton, Esq., of the Bank of England, wrote to me respecting this note, and wished to know how it was executed, and whether it was done on wood or copper, &c. I was strongly advised, by a friend, not to give the gentlemen of that bank any information whatever about my plate; “for,” said he, “as soon as they know the nature of what they are enquiring after, you will hear no more from them.” I did not take his advice; and, after a deal of trouble in writing to them, and stating amongst many other matters, that, “though my plate would do well for country banks, it would not do for the great number wanted for the Bank of England,” the business ended in nothing. It may perhaps be well, while I am on the subject of bank notes, to pass over a number of years, and come down to the year 1818, when a commission was appointed to investigate the business of forgery, and to endeavour to prevent it in future. Some time previous to this, I was employed by my friend, John Bailey, Esq., of Chillingham, to engrave plates to prevent a repetition of the pen-and-ink forgeries which had been committed upon the Berwick Bank, which it was found had been better imitations than could be made from copper plates. In this I succeeded; and also, by a simple process, on the plates I engraved for the Northumberland Bank. Immediately on the heel of this, and as soon as the commissioners above-mentioned had commenced their enquiries, it seemed as if the services and abilities of all the artists in the kingdom were held in requisition, to give in their specimens and their schemes for this purpose; and, willing to contribute, all in my power to accomplish so desirable an end, I, amongst many others, gave in my plan. The leading object with me was permanency, or, in other words, to aim at executing a device that would never need either alteration or repairs; and the other part of my plan was, that the device should be of such a nature, that all men of common discernment could easily recognize the note as a legitimate one. In my letters to Sir Joseph Banks, I did not mention anything about using types, or how highly I approved of their use, because I knew that others had done so before, and to po............