On the fourth of August, in the year 1772, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Basire, Engraver, of No. 31, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, for the term of seven years.

My father paid fifty guineas. I was fourteen years old.

Mr. Basire set me to drawing the monuments in Westminster Abbey. I spent many hours alone among the tombs, drawing the effigies of kings and queens. The Gothic forms entered my imagination and have never left it.

I was happy as a boy could be. I had found my vocation.