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plates the mathematical figures for the work. Mr. Beilby judiciously advised that they should be cut on wood, in which case each figure might accompany, on the same page, the proposition it was intended to illustrate. He employed his young apprentice to execute many of these, and the beauty and accuracy with which they were finished, led Mr. Beilby to advise him strongly to devote his chief attention to the improvement of this long-lost art. Several mathematical works were supplied about this time with very beautiful diagrams, particularly Dr. Enfield's translation of Rossignol's Elements of Geometry.

On the expiration of his apprenticeship he visited the metropolis for a few months, and was, during this short period, employed by an engraver on wood in the vicinity of Hattongarden; but London, with all its gaieties and temptations, had no attraction for Bewick. He panted for the enjoyment of his native air, and his indulgence in his accustomed rural habits. On his return to the north, he spent a short time in Scotland, and afterwards he became his master's partner, and John his brother became their joint-apprentice. About this time Mr. Thomas Saint, printer of "The Newcastle Courant," projected an edition of Gay's Fables, and the Bewicks were engaged to furnish the cuts. One of these, the Old Hound, obtained the premium, offered by the Society of Arts for the best specimen of wood engraving, in the year 1775. An impression of this may be seen in the memoir prefixed to "Select Fables," 1820, printed for Charnley, Newcastle, and sold by Baldwin and Cradock, hereafter to be mentioned, from which many notices in the present memoir are taken. Mr. Saint published a work, entitled "Select Fables," as early as 1776, with an indifferent set of cuts. Whether any of them were furnished by the Bewicks is not known; probably not; but in 1779 came out the Fables of Gay, and in 1784, a new edition of the "Select Fables," with an entire new set of cuts, by the Bewicks.

It has been already said, that Mr. Bewick, from his earliest youth, was a close observer and accurate delineator of

the forms, and also of the habits and manners of animals; and during his apprenticeship, indeed through his whole life, he neglected no opportunity of visiting and drawing such foreign animals as were exhibited in the different itinerant collections which occasionally visited Newcastle. This led to the project of the "History of Quadrupeds." It is remarkable that the first cut which he actually engraved with this view, was finished on the 15th of November, 1785, the day on which he received the news of his father's death. Preparations for the work were gradually making, till, in the year 1787, a regular "Prospectus" was issued, accompanied by specimens of several of the best cuts then prepared ; but it was not till 1790 that the work appeared.

In the mean time the prospectus had the effect of introducing the spirited undertaker to the notice of many ardent cultivators of natural science, particularly to Marmaduke Tonstall, Esq. of Wycliffe, whose museum was even then remarkable for the extent of its treasures, and for the skill with which they had been preserved; whose collection also of living animals, both winged and quadruped, was very con-siderable. Mr. Bewick was invited to visit Wycliffe, and made drawings of various specimens, living and dead, which contributed greatly to enrich his subsequent publications. The portraits which he took with him of the wild cattle in Chillingham Park, the seat of Lord Tankerville, (whose agent, Mr. John Bailey, was also an eminent naturalist, and very intimate friend of Mr. Bewick,) particularly attracted Mr. Tonstall's attention; and he was very urgent to obtain a representation, upon a larger scale, of these, now unique, specimens of the "ancient Caledonian breed." For this purpose he made a special visit to Chillingham, and the result was the largest wood-cut he ever engraved, which, though it is considered as his chef-d'œuvre, seems also to show the limits within which wood-engraving must necessarily be confined. The block, after a few impressions were taken off, split into several pieces, and remained so till, in the year 1817, the richly figured border having been removed, the pieces containing the

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figure of the wild bull were so closely clamped together, as to bear the force of printing, and impressions may still be had. A few proof impressions on thin vellum of the original block have been valued at twenty guineas.

As it obviously required much time as well as labour to collect, from various quarters, the materials for a "General History of Quadrupeds," it is evident that much must be done in other ways in the regular course of business. In a country engraver's office, much of this requires no record; but, during this interval, three works on copper appear to have been executed chiefly by Mr. Thomas Bewick. A small quarto volume, entitled, “A Tour through Sweden, Lapland, &c., by Matthew Consett, Esq., the companion of Sir G. H. Liddell," was illustrated by engravings by Beilby and Bewick; the latter executing all the specimens of natural history, particularly the rein-deer and their Lapland keepers, whom he had thus the unexpected opportunity of delineating from the life. During this interval he also drew, and engraved on copper, at the expense of their respective proprietors, “The Whitley large Ox," belonging to Mr. Edward Hall, the four quarters weighing 187 stone; and "The remarkable Kyloe .Ox," bred in Mull, by Donald Campbell, Esq., and fed by Mr. Robert Spearman, of Rothley Park. The latter is a very curious specimen of copperplate engraving, combining the styles of wood and copper, particularly in the minute manner in which the verdure is executed.

At length appeared "The General History of Quadrupeds," the figures engraved on wood by T. Bewick; printed for S. Hodgson, R. Beilby, and T. Bewick; a work uncommonly well received by the public, and ever since held in increased estimation. Perhaps there never was a work to which the rising generation of the day was, and no doubt the rising generation for many years to come will be, under such obligations for exciting in them a taste for the natural history of animals. The representations which are given of the various tribes, possess a boldness of design, a correctness of outline, an exactness of attitude, and a discrimination of general cha

racter, which convey, at the first glance, a just and lively idea of each different animal. The figures were accompanied by a clear and concise statement of the nature, habits, and disposition, of each animal; these were chiefly drawn up by his able coadjutors, Messrs. Hodgson and Beilby, subject, no doubt, to the corrections and additions of Mr. Bewick. In drawing up these descriptions, it was the endeavour of the publishers to lay before their readers a particular account of the quadrupeds of our own country; especially of those which have so materially contributed to its strength, prosperity, and happiness; and to notice the improvements which an enlarged system of agriculture, supported by a noble spirit of generous emulation, has diffused throughout the country.

But the great, and, to the public in general, unexpected charm of the History of Quadrupeds was, the number and variety of the vignettes and tail-pieces with which the whole volume is embellished. Many of these are connected with the manners and habits of the animals near which they are placed; others are, in some other way, connected with them, as being intended to convey to those who avail themselves of their labours some moral lesson, as to their humane treatment, or to expose, by perhaps the most cutting possible satire, the cruelty of those who ill-treat them. But a great proportion of them express, in a way of dry humour peculiar to himself, the artist's particular notions concerning men and things, the passing events of the time, &c., and exhibit often such ludicrous and, in a few instances, serious and even awful combinations of ideas, as could not perhaps have been developed so forcibly in any other way.

From the moment of the publication of this volume, the fame of Thomas Bewick was established on a foundation not to be shaken. It has passed through seven editions, with continually growing improvements.

It was observed before, that Mr. Bewick's younger brother, John, was apprenticed to Mr. Beilby and himself. He naturally followed the line of engraving which had been so successfully struck out by his brother, and at the close of his apprentice

ship removed to London, where he soon became very eminent as a wood engraver. Indeed, in some respects, he might be said to excel the elder Bewick. This naturally induced Mr. William Bulmer, the spirited proprietor of the Shakspeare Press, "whose various splendid publications have so effectually contributed to establish the credit of the English press," himself a Newcastle man, to conceive the desire of giving to the world a complete specimen of the improved arts of type and block-printing; and, for this purpose, he engaged the Messrs. Bewick, two of his earliest acquaintances, to engrave a set of cuts to embellish the poems of "Goldsmith's Traveller, and Deserted Village," and "Parnell's Hermit." These poems appeared in 1795, in a royal quarto volume, and attracted a great share of public attention, as well on account of the beauty of the printing as of the novelty of the embellishments. These, after designs made from the most interesting passages of the poems, were executed with the greatest care and skill, and were universally allowed to exceed every thing of the kind that had before been produced. Indeed, it was conceived almost impossible that such delicate effects could be obtained from blocks of wood; and it is said that his late Majesty entertained so great a doubt upon the subject, that he ordered his bookseller, Mr. George Nicol, to procure the blocks from Mr. Bulmer for his inspection, that he might convince himself of the fact.

The success of this volume induced Mr. Bulmer to print, in the same way, Mr. Somerville's Chase. The subjects which ornament this work being entirely composed of landscape scenery and animals, were peculiarly adapted to display the beauties of wood-engraving. Unfortunately for the arts, it was the last work of the younger Bewick, who died at the close of the year 1795 of a pulmonary complaint; probably contracted by too great application. He is justly described in the monumental inscription in Ovingham church-yard, as "only excelled as to his ingenuity as an artist by his conduct as a man." Previously, however, to his death, he had drawn the whole of the designs for the "Chase" on the blocks, except

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