this backlog of papers on hand, and no large distributor, Jackson's
venture collapsed. This happened shortly after the publication of the
_Essay_, and its author was never to have the opportunity to carry out
his grandiose plans.

Jackson appealed to Hollis, who wrote to his former mentor, Dr. John
Ward, professor of rhetoric at Gresham College and the head of a society
founded by noblemen and gentlemen for the encouragement of learning:[41]

Dear Sir!-- Do Me the Favour to accept these four prints of
Jackson's. They are no where sold, & will soon be scarce. When You
consider their Merit, I am confident You will lament the hard Fate
of the ingenious Artist; who, at this Time, in his old age, & in his
own Country is unprotected unnoticed, and can difficultly support
Himself against immediate distress & Ruin.

I am, with great Respect,

Dear Sir!

Your obliged affect humble Servant

T. Hollis

Bedford Street, February 10, 1755

[Footnote 41: British Museum Add. mss. 6210.]

We do not know the results of this appeal. In any case Jackson seems to
have faded out as an artist. Little is known of his subsequent career up
to the time more than twenty years later, when Bewick mentions meeting
him in advanced age. In 1761 he made a drawing of Salisbury Cathedral
for Edward Eaton, "bookseller at Sarum," for a line engraving dedicated
by Eaton to the Lord Bishop of Winchester. This large view included
figures in the foreground in an attempt to give animation to the scene.
Unfortunately the engraver, John Fougeron, was little more than an
amateur. His execution was feeble and mechanical: Jackson's drawing
suffered so badly that its quality cannot be determined. This print was
copied on a smaller scale in a steel engraving by J. B. Swaine,
published by J. B. Nichols & Son in 1843, but it was hardly an
improvement.

Bewick's recollections of Jackson, written about forty years after their
meeting in Newcastle, imply that Jackson stayed in that city for a
period. The Town Clerk's Office, however, has no record of his
residence. The following passage from Bewick's _Memoir_ is the last
evidence[42] bearing on Jackson:

Several impressions from duplicate or triplicate blocks, printed in
this way, of a very large size, were also given to me, as well as a
drawing of the press from which they were printed, many years ago,
by Jean Baptiste Jackson, who had been patronised by the King of