chief attention, henceforward to wood. engraving, and to make it his profession. At this time the art in question had fallen into the lowest repute. Yet it had by no means been always so. In former times it had both counted several distinguished names among its cultivators, and had reached a very striking degree of effect in some of its productions. About the end of the fifteenth century the celebrated painter, Albert Durer, who was also eminent as a copper plate engraver, practised cutting in wood. When the art was first introduced it was employed chiefly to furnish ornamental borders for the titlepages of books; and these decorations were in general merely broad stripes of black, enlivened by a few simple figures, such as circles or hearts, which were left white upon the dark ground, by being, not raised, but scooped out in the wood. In the same manner, when any object, the shape of a human or of any other being, for instance, was to be represented, it was the practice merely to cut away the block according to the requisite outline, leaving all the space within untouched, so that when inked and applied to the paper, it left its impression in a blot of unrelieved and uniform blackness throughout. The picture of the devil, in particular, used often to be exhibited in this sable, and, as many no doubt deemed it in this case, peculiarly suitable guise. It soon, however, became usual to introduce white lines, effected, of course, by the easy pro-, cess of merely cutting grooves in the wood, to mark the shades at the knees, shoulders, and other parts of the figure; and this improvement made the represents ation both less sombre and more natural. At a still later period, the ontline alone and the shaded parts were left prominent. This may be considered to have been the commencement of the existing style of the

art.

But the period during which woodengraving was carried to the greatest perfection, was about the beginning of the sixteenth century, when a method was followed by some of the more eminent artists, which gave to their performances an effeet unattained by their predecessors, and which the best productions of succeeding times have perhaps scarcely surpassed. This was the method of crosshatching, or the cutting of the wood into a congeries of squares or lozenges by two series of prominent lines running transversely to each other. By this means they produced not only shading, but gradations of shading, with as much perfection as is done in copper-plate engraving; for the different parts of the picture had only to be hatched more or less closely, according as they were intended to be dark or light,

The difficulty, however, of carving these crossing lines upon the wood, must have been exceedingly great; and, indeed, it has been supposed by some, that the effect in question was produced by the paper being impressed, not upon one, but upou two blocks successively. The method of cross-hatching in wood, has, at all events, been long abandoned; but some attempts that have been made in very recent times, have shown that it is perfectly practicable to produce the same effect as in the works of the old masters by a single block, although at the expense of extraordinary labour and skill. If the old method had consisted in an sneh half-mechancial process as the application of successive blocks, it probably would not have fallen so completely into oblivion. The extraordinary pains it cost and the time it consumed occasioned its disuse.

When the practice of cross-hatching was abandoned, however, wood-engraving may be said to have ceased to be cul'ivated as an art. In this country in particular, it was seldom resorted to, except to furnish a few of the simple ornaments nsed in common printing, such as a border for the title page, a tailpiece, or a coarse cut to put at the head of a street ballad. From this state of contempt it was raised again to the rank of one of the fine arts, by the genius and perseverance of the individuak, the mention of whose name has given occasion to this brief sketch of its history, and who, by his labours in its cultivation and improvement, raised himself also from obscurity to distinction. According to Mr. Bielby's advice, Bewick probably continued to give much of his attention to cutting in wood during the remainder of his apprenticeship. As soon as it was over he repaired to London, where he went into the employment of a person who practised this trade, such as it then existed, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Hatton Garden. It is probable, however, that he soon found he was not likely to learn much from his new master; for, in a very short time, he returned to the country. With his taste, too, for rural scenery and enjoyments, and the observation of nature, he found little in London in which he took much interest. When Mr. Bielby, therefore, now offered to take him into partnership, he at once resolved to retrace his steps to Newcastle. Nor even after he had obtained his highest celebrity, did he ever again think of establishing himself in the metropolis. He spent the remainder of his life in his native district.

The first specimen of his talents by which Bewick made himself publicly known was a cut of an old hound, which, being laid before the Society of Arts, ob

tained a prize which they had that year offered for the best wood-engraving. This was in 1775. The block had been cut for an edition of "Gay's Fables," which had been projected some time before by Mr. Thomas Saiut, the printer of the "Newca-tle Courant." The work itself appeared in 1779, and immediately attracted general attention by the striking superiority of its embellishments, which were all from wood-cuts executed by Bewick and his younger brother John, who, when Bielby and he entered into partnership, had become their apprentice. From this time the reputation of the ar ist went on increasing steadily, and he produced a succession of works which very soon gave altogether a new character to his art it self.

The work, however, which established his fame was his " History of the Quadrupeds," which appeared in 1790. He had been employed many years in preparing this publication, all the cuts in which were not only engraved by himself or his brother, bat were all copied from his own drawings. He had continued to cultivate his early talent for the delineation of animals with unwearied industry, having been in the habit of taking sketches of all the striking specimens that canie under his notice while, in order to obtain accurate representations of those of greater variety, he never failed to visit whatever menageries came to Newcastle, and there to draw them from the life. His assiduous studies from nature no doubt greatly contributed to the excellence of the cuts in the "History of Quadrupeds." Many of the vignettes also, with which this publication was adorned, had uncommon merit as original sketches; for Bewick did not confine his attempts with his pencil to the mere delineation of animals.

But Bewick was principally indebted for the great superiority of his productions over those of his predecessors, to an entirely new mode of operation, which he intrduced into the art, The secret of the old method of cross-hatching, as we have mentioned, had been long lost; or, at least it had been entirely abandoned from the extraordinary difficulty of the only known manner of practising it. But Be. wick produced nearly the same effects by another, and much simpler contrivance. Till his time, the block, when prepared for the press, presented only two varieties of surface, the parts which were intended to receive the ink and make the impression being left in relief; while all the rest of the wood was cut away to so great a depth, as entirely to prevent it from touching the paper. The consequence was, that the dark portions of the engraving

7

were all of one shade, while the only other colour introduced was the pure white of the paper. But Bewick effected a variety of tints, and thereby a much truer and more natural perspective, by leaving certain parts of his blocks not quite so prominent as those that were intended to produce the darkest lines, while at the same time he did not lower them so much as altogether to prevent them from coming in contact with the paper when applied to take off the cut. The portious of the surface which were left in this state communicated an impression varying in depth of shade according to the degree in which the wood was scooped away; and the cut thus exhibited upon the paper all the gradations to be found in a copperplate engraving. It is said that this improvement was first suggested to Bewick by his friend, the late Mr. W. Bulmer (afterwards the eminent London printer), who was a native of Northumberland as well as himself, and serving his apprenticeship in Newcastle at the same time, used always to take off the proofs of Bewick's cuts. To the skill and contrivance of the artist himself, however, we are doubtless to ascribe the first application and practical demonstration of the new method, as well as the subsequent improvements by which he eventually gave. to it probably all the perfection of which it is susceptible.

It would be out of place in a sketch like this to follow up what has been said by a catalogue of the various works which Mr. Bewick gave to the world, after the period in his history at which we are now arrived, or which made their appearance illustrated by his embellishments. We have traced the steps by which he rose, through the force of his own talents and industry, to the head of his profession': aud it is not necessary that we should pursue his career farther. Suffice it to say, that he amply sustained throughout the remainder of his long life the promise of his early progress. No man was ever more devoted to his profession. Its labours were as much his enjoyment as his business. He was always an early riser; and from the hour at which he got out of bed till evening, he was generally to be found at work, and whistling merrily all the while. For what are called the pleasures of society he cared very little; his social hours were passed in the midst of his family, or occasionally among a small number of select friends when the task of the day was done. Every thing in the least degree savouring of effeminate indulgence he despised. His ordinary exercise was walking; but he was fond of all the manly and invigorating sports of the country, and desired no better relaxa