[Footnote VII-54: Pinkerton having stated in his Scottish Gallery,

on the authority of Messrs. Morison, printers, of Perth, that

Bewick, “observing the uncommon genius of his late apprentice,

Robert Johnson, employed him to trace the figures on the wood in

the History of Quadrupeds,” Bewick, in his letter, printed in the

Monthly Magazine for November 1805, previously quoted, thus denies

the assertion: “It is only necessary for me to declare, and this

will be attested by my partner Mr. Beilby, who compiled the

History of Quadrupeds, and was a proprietor of the work, that

neither Robert Johnson, nor any person but myself, made the

drawings, or traced or cut them on the wood.”--Robert Johnson was

employed by Messrs. Morison to copy for the Scottish Gallery

several portraits at Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Earl of

Breadalbane. Bewick in this letter carefully avoids pleading to

that with which he was not charged; he does not deny that several

of the drawings of the tail-pieces in the History of British Birds

were made by Robert Johnson. A pupil of Bewick’s, now living, saw

many of Johnson’s drawings for these cuts, and sat beside Clennell

when he was engraving them.]

[Footnote VII-55: These three cuts were engraved by one of

Bewick’s pupils, named Henry Hole. Neither Bewick’s memory nor his

daughter’s had been accurate on this occasion; but not one of the

other cuts which they failed to recollect can be compared with

those engraved by Bewick himself. In addition to those three, the

following, not engraved by Bewick himself, had appeared at the

time the above conversation took place--some time between 1825 and

1826:--the Brent Goose, the Lesser Imber, and the Cormorant,

engraved by L. Clennell; the Velvet Duck, the Red-breasted

Merganser, and the Crested Cormorant, by H. Hole; the Rough-legged

Falcon, the Pigmy Sand-piper, the Red Sand-piper, and the Eared

Grebe, by W. W. Temple.]

Though it is evident that Bewick meant here simply to assert that all

the _figures_ of the _birds_, except the few which he mentions, were

entirely engraved by himself, yet his biographer always speaks as if

_every one_ of the cuts in the work--both birds and tail-pieces--were

exclusively engraved by Bewick himself; and in consequence of this

erroneous opinion he refers to seven cuts[VII-56] as affording

favourable instances of Bewick’s manner of representing water, although

_not one_ of them was engraved by him, but by Luke Clennell, from

drawings by himself or by Robert Johnson. Mr. Atkinson, in his

admiration of Bewick, and in his desire to exaggerate his fame, entirely

overlooks the merits of those by whom he was assisted. Charlton Nesbit

and Luke Clennell rendered him more assistance, though not in the cuts

of birds, than such as that “afforded by a turner’s apprentice when he

rounds off the heavy mass of wood;” and Robert Johnson, who designed

many of the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figure more

correctly than Bewick himself, and in landscape-drawing was at least his

equal. These observations are not intended in the least to detract from

Bewick’s just and deservedly great reputation, but to correct the

erroneous opinions which have been promulgated on this subject by

persons who knew nothing of the very considerable assistance which he

received from his pupils in the drawing and engraving of the tail-pieces

in his history of British Birds.

[Footnote VII-56: “He never could, he said, please himself in his

representations of water in a state of motion, and a horse

galloping: his taste must have been fastidious indeed, if that

beautiful moonlight scene at sea, page 120, vol. ii. [edition

1816]; the river scene at page 126; the sea breaking among the

rocks at page 168, or 177, or 200, or 216; or the rippling of the

water as it leaves the feet of the old fisherman, at page 95, did

not satisfy him.” In scarcely one of the cuts engraved by Bewick

himself is water in a state of motion well represented. He knew

his own deficiency in this respect; though Mr. Atkinson, not being

able to distinguish the cuts engraved by Bewick himself from those

engraved by his pupils, cannot perceive it.]

[Illustration]

Though three of the best specimens of Bewick’s talents as a designer and

engraver on wood--the Bittern, the Wood-cock, and the Common

Duck[VII-57]--are to be found in the second volume, containing the

water-birds, yet the land-birds in the first volume, from his being more

familiar with their habits, and in consequence of their allowing more

scope for the display of Bewick’s excellence in the representation of

foliage, are, on the whole, superior both in design and execution to the

others; their characteristic attitude and expression are represented

with the greatest truth, while, from the propriety of the back-grounds,

and the beauty of the trees and foliage, almost every cut forms a

perfect little picture. Bewick’s talent in pourtraying the form and

character of birds is seen to great advantage in the hawks and the owls;

but his excellence, both as a designer and engraver on wood, is yet more

strikingly displayed in several of the other cuts contained in the same

volume, and among these the following are perhaps the best. The numbers

refer to the pages of the first edition of the Land Birds, 1797. The

Field-fare, page 98; the Yellow Bunting, a most exquisite cut, and

considered by Bewick as the best that he ever engraved, 143; the

Goldfinch, 165; the Skylark, 178; the Woodlark, 183; the Lesser and the

Winter Fauvette, 212, 213; the Willow Wren, 222; the Wren, 227; the

White-rump, 229; the Cole Titmouse, 241; the Night-Jar, 262; the

Domestic Cock, 276; the Turkey, 286; the Pintado, 293; the Red Grouse,

301; the Partridge, 305; the Quail, 308; and the Corncrake, 311.--Among

the Birds in the second volume, first edition, 1804, the following may

be instanced as the most excellent. The Water Crake, page 10; the Water

Rail, 13; the Bittern, 47; the Woodcock, 60; the Common Snipe, 68; the

Judcock, or Jack Snipe, 73; the Dunlin, 117; the Dun Diver, 257; the

Grey Lag Goose, 292; and the Common Duck, 333.

[Footnote VII-57: The cut here given is engraved by Bewick at a

somewhat earlier date, for a once popular work entitled the

History of Three Hundred Animals, since incorporated in Mrs.

Loudon’s “Entertaining Naturalist.”]

Nothing of the same kind that wood engraving has produced since the time

of Bewick can for a moment bear a comparison with these cuts. They are

not to be equalled till a designer and engraver shall arise possessed of

Bewick’s knowledge of nature, and endowed with his happy talent of

expressing it. Bewick has in this respect effected more by himself than

has been produced by one of our best wood engravers when working from

drawings made by a professional designer, but who knows nothing of

birds, of their habits, or the places which they frequent; and has not

the slightest feeling for natural incident or picturesque beauty.--No

mere fac-simile engraver of a drawing ready made to his hand, should

venture to speak slightingly of Bewick’s talents until he has both

_drawn and engraved_ a cut which may justly challenge a comparison with

the Kyloe Ox, the Yellow-hammer, the Partridge, the Wood-cock, or the

Tame Duck.

Bewick’s style of engraving, as displayed in the Birds, is exclusively

his own. He adopts no conventional mode of representing texture or

producing an effect, but skilfully avails himself of the most simple and

effective means which his art affords of faithfully and efficiently

representing his subject. He never wastes his time in laborious trifling

to display his skill in execution;--he works with a higher aim, to

represent nature; and, consequently, he never bestows his pains except

to express a meaning. The manner in which he has represented the

feathers in many of his birds, is as admirable as it is perfectly

original. His feeling for his subject, and his knowledge of his art,

suggest the best means of effecting his end, and the manner in which he

has employed them entitle him to rank as a wood engraver--without

reference to his merits as a designer--among the very best that have

practised the art.

[Illustration]

Our copy of his cut of the Partridge, though not equal to the original,

will perhaps to a certain extent serve to exemplify his practice. Every

line that is to be perceived in this bird is the best that could have

been devised to express the engraver’s perfect idea of his subject. The

soft downy plumage of the breast is represented by delicate black lines

crossed horizontally by white ones, and in order that they may appear

comparatively light in the impression, the block has in this part been

lowered. The texture of the skin of the legs, and the marks of the toes,

are expressed with the greatest accuracy; and the varied tints of the

plumage of the rump, back, wings, and head, are indicated with no less

fidelity.--Such a cut as this Bewick would execute in less time than a

modern French wood engraver would require to cut the delicate

cross-hatchings necessary, according to French taste, to denote the grey

colour of a soldier’s great coat.

The cut of the Wood-cock, of which that on the next page is a copy, is

another instance of the able manner in which Bewick has availed himself

of the capabilities of his art. He has here produced the most perfect

likeness of the bird that ever was engraved, and at the same time given

to his subject an effect, by the skilful management of light and shade,

which it is impossible to obtain by means of copper-plate engraving.

Bewick thoroughly understood the advantages of his art in this respect,

and no wood engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed

them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere effect.

[Illustration]

Among the very best of Bewick’s cuts, as a specimen of wood engraving,

is, as we have already said, the Common Duck. The round, full form of

the bird, is represented with the greatest fidelity; the plumage in all

its downy, smooth, and glossy variety,--on the sides, the rump, the

back, the wings, and the head,--is singularly true to nature; while the

legs and toes, and even the webs between the toes, are engraved in a

manner which proves the great attention that Bewick, when necessary,

paid to the minutest points of detail. The effect of the whole is

excellent, and the back-ground, both in character and execution, is

worthy of this master-piece of Bewick as a designer and engraver on

wood.

The tail-pieces in the first editions of the Birds are, taken all

together, the best that are to be found in any of Bewick’s works; but,

though it is not unlikely that he suggested the subjects, there is

reason to believe that many of them were drawn by Robert Johnson, and

there cannot be a doubt that the greater number of those contained in

the second volume were engraved by Luke Clennell. Before saying anything

more about them, it seems necessary to give a list of those which were

either not drawn or not engraved by Bewick himself; it has been

furnished by one of his early pupils who saw most of Johnson’s drawings,

and worked in the same room with Clennell when he was engraving those

which are here ascribed to him. The pages show where those cuts are to

be found in the edition of 1797 and in that of 1821.

Editions

VOLUME I 1797 1821

page page

Boughs and Bird’s-nest, drawn and engraved by Charlton

Nesbit, preface i i

Sportsman and Old Shepherd, drawn by Robert Johnson,

engraved by Bewick, preface (transferred to Vol. ii.

preface, page vi. in the edition of 1821) vi --

Old Man breaking stones, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved

by Bewick 26 xxviii

Horse running away with boys in the cart, drawn by

R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 82 146

Fox and Bird, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 159 140

Winter piece, the _geldard_, drawn by R. Johnson,

engraved by Bewick 162 160

Editions

VOLUME II 1804 1821

page page

Two Old Soldiers, “the Honours of War,” drawn by

R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick, introduction v vii

Man creeping along the branch of a tree to cross a

stream, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 3 63

Old Fisherman, with a leister, drawn by R. Johnson,

engraved by L. Clennell 23 38

The Broken Branch, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by

Bewick 31 41

Old Man watching his fishing-lines in the rain, drawn

by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 41 48

Man angling, his coat-skirts pinned up, engraved by

L. Clennell 46 57

Old Angler _fettling_ his hooks, engraved by

L. Clennell 50 97

Partridge shooting, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by

L. Clennell 82 105

Woman hanging out clothes, engraved by L. Clennell

(transferred to vol. i. page 164, edition of 1821) 106 --

Man fallen into the water, engraved by L. Clennell 94 262

River scene, engraved by L. Clennell 107 132

Coast scene, engraved by H. Hole 123 124

Coast scene, moonlight, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved

by L. Clennell 125 122

Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole 144 142

Beggar and Mastiff, engraved L. Clennell 160 207

Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 161 151

Burying-ground, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 166 237

Man and Cow, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 173 161

Tinker and his Wife, windy day, drawn by R. Johnson,

engraved by H. Hole 176 148

Winter piece, skating, drawn by R. Johnson engraved

by Bewick 180 202

Man on a rock, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by

L. Clennell 182 177

Icebergs, Ship frozen up, drawn and engraved by

L. Clennell 188 156

Sea piece, moonlight, engraved by L. Clennell 194 190

Tired Sportsman, engraved by L. Clennell 202 245

The Glutton, engraved by L. Clennell 211 195

Sea piece, engraved by L. Clennell 215 197

Runic Pillar, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by John

Johnson 220 342

Esquimaux and Canoe, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 230 211

Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 238 306

Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by

L. Clennell 240 218

Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 245 220

Man and Dog, engraved by H. Hole 251 228

Geese going home, engraved by L. Clennell 271 260

Boys sailing a Ship, engraved by L. Clennell 282 268

Old Man and a Horse, going to market with two sacks full

of geese 286 247

Boys riding on gravestones, drawn by R. Johnson,

engraved by L. Clennell 304 323

Man smoking, engraved by L. Clennell 337 303

Pumping water on a weak leg, engraved by L. Clennell 348 304

Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 359 314

Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 366 242

Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell (in

Supplement to vol. ii. p. 20) 380 --

This list might be considerably increased by inserting many other

tail-pieces engraved by Clennell; but this does not appear necessary,

as a sufficient number has been enumerated to show that both in the

designing and in the engraving of those cuts Bewick received very

considerable assistance from his pupils. In the additional tail-pieces

to be found in subsequent editions the greater number are not engraved

by Bewick himself. In the last edition, published in 1832, there are at

least thirty engraved by his pupils subsequent to the time of Clennell.

The head-piece at the commencement of the introduction, volume I. page

vii. drawn and engraved by Bewick himself, presents an excellent view of

a farm-yard. Everything is true to nature; the birds assembled near the

woman seen winnowing corn are, though on a small scale, represented with

the greatest fidelity; even among the smallest the wagtail can be

distinguished from the sparrow. The dog, feeling no interest in the

business, is seen quietly resting on the dunghill; but the chuckling of

the hens, announcing that something like eating is going forward, has

evidently excited the attention of the old sow, and brought her and her

litter into the yard in the expectation of getting a share. The season,

the latter end of autumn, is indicated by the flight of field-fares, and

the comparatively naked appearance of the trees; and we perceive that it

is a clear, bright day from the strong shadow of the ladder projected

against the wall, and on the thatched roof of the outhouse. A heron,

a crow, and a magpie are perceived nailed against the gable end of the

barn; and a couple of pigeons are seen flying above the house. The cut

forms at once an interesting picture of country life, and a graphic

summary of the contents of the work.

Among the tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himself, in the first

edition of the Birds, the following appear most deserving of notice. In

volume I.: A traveller drinking,--supposed to represent a sketch of his

own costume when making a tour of the Lakes in 1776,--introduced twice,

at the end of the contents, page xxx. and again at page 177. A man

_watering_, in a different sense to the preceding, a very natural,

though not a very delicate subject, at page 42. At page 62, an old

miller, lying asleep behind some bushes; he has evidently been tipsy and

from the date on a stone to the left, we are led to suppose that he had

been indulging too freely on the King’s birth-day, 4th June. The

following is a copy of the cut. Two cows standing in a pool, under the

shade of a _dyke-back_, on a warm day, page 74. In this cut Bewick has

introduced a sketch of a magpie chased by a hawk, but saved from the

talons of its pursuer by the timely interference of a couple of crows.

Winter scene, of which the following is a copy, at page 78. Some boys

have made a large snow man, which excites the special wonderment of a

horse; and Bewick, to give the subject a moral application, has added

“_Esto perpetua!_” at the bottom of the cut: the great work of the

little men, however they may admire it, and wish for its endurance, will

be dissolved on the first thaw. At page 97 the appearance of mist and

rain is well expressed; and in the cut of a poacher tracking a hare, the

snow is no less naturally represented. At page 157, a man riding with a

_howdy_--a midwife--behind him, part of the cut appears covered with a

leaf. Bewick once being asked the meaning of this, said that “it was

done to indicate that the scene which was to follow required to be

concealed.” At page 194 we perceive a full-fed old churl hanging his

cat; at page 226, a hen attacking a dog; and at page 281, two cocks

fighting,--all three excellent of their kind.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Bewick’s humour occasionally verges on positive grossness, and a

_glaring_ instance of his want of delicacy presents itself in the

tail-piece at page 285. After the work was printed off Bewick became

aware that the nakedness of a prominent part of his subject required to

be covered, and one of his apprentices was employed to blacken it over

with ink. In the next edition a plug was inserted in the block, and the

representation of two bars of wood engraved upon it to hide the

offensive part. The cut, however, even thus amended, is still extremely

indelicate.[VII-58]

[Footnote VII-58: The subject of this cut is thus explained in

Brockett’s Glossary of North Country Words: “NEDDY, NETTY, a

certain place that will not bear a written explanation; but which

is _depicted to the very life_ in a tail-piece in the first

edition of Bewick’s Land Birds, p. 285. In the second edition a

bar is placed against the offending part of this broad display of

native humour.”]

The following is a copy of the head-piece at the commencement of the

advertisement to the second volume. It represents an old man saying

grace with closed eyes, while his cat avails herself of the opportunity

of making free with his porridge. The Reverend Henry Cotes, vicar of

Bedlington, happening to call on Bewick when he was finishing this cut,

expressed his disapprobation of the subject, as having a tendency to

ridicule the practice of an act of devotion; but Bewick denied that he

had any such intention, and would not consent to omit the cut. He drew a

distinction between the act and the performer; and though he might

approve of saying grace before meat, he could not help laughing at one

of the over-righteous, who, while craving a blessing with hypocritical

grimace, and with eyes closed to outward things, loses a present good.

The head-piece to the contents presents an excellent sketch of an old

man going to market on a windy and rainy day. The old horse on which he

is mounted has become restive, and the rider has both broken his stick

and lost his hat. The horse seems determined not to move till it suits

his own pleasure; and it is evident that the old man dare not get down

to recover his hat, for, should he do so, encumbered as he is with a

heavy basket over his left arm and an egg-pannier slung over his

shoulder, he will not be able to remount.

[Illustration]

The following are the principal tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick

himself in the first edition of the second volume of the Birds, 1804.

A shooter with a gun at his back crossing a stream on long stilts,

page 5. An old wooden-legged beggar gnawing a bone near the entrance to

a gentleman’s house, and a dog beside him eagerly watching for the

reversion, page 27. A dog with a kettle tied to his tail, pursued by

boys,--a great hulking fellow, evidently a blacksmith, standing with

folded arms enjoying the sport, page 56. A man crossing a frozen stream,

with a branch of a tree between his legs, to support him should the ice

happen to break, page 85. A monkey basting a goose that is seen

roasting, page 263. An old woman with a pitcher, driving away some geese

from a well, page 291. An old beggar-woman assailed by a gander, page

313.

One of the best of the tail-pieces subsequently inserted is that which

occurs at the end of the description of the Moor-buzzard, volume I. in

the editions of 1816 and 1821, and at page 31 in the edition of 1832. It

represents two dyers carrying a tub between them by means of a

cowl-staff; and the figures, Mr. Atkinson says, are portraits of two old

men belonging to Ovingham,--“the one on the right being ‘auld Tommy

Dobson of the Bleach Green,’ and the other ‘Mat. Carr.’”[VII-59] The

action of the men is excellent, and their expression is in perfect

accordance with the business in which they are engaged--to wit, carrying

their tub full of _chemmerly_--chamber-lye--to the dye-house. The

olfactory organs of both are evidently affected by the pungent odour of

their load. It may be necessary to observe that the dyers of Ovingham

had at that time a general reservoir in the village, to which most of

the cottagers were contributors; but as each family had the privilege of

supplying themselves from it with as much as they required for scouring

and washing, it sometimes happened that the dyers found their trough

empty, and were consequently obliged to solicit a supply from such

persons as kept a private stock of their own. As they were both

irritable old men, the phrase, “He’s like a _raised_ [enraged] dyer

begging _chemmerly_,” became proverbial in Ovingham to denote a person

in a passion. This cut, as I am informed by one of Bewick’s old pupils,

was copied on the block and engraved by Luke Clennell from a

water-colour drawing by Robert Johnson.

[Footnote VII-59: “Mr. Atkinson must have misunderstood Bewick, as

the old man’s name was George, not Matthew, Carr. He was

grandfather to Edward Willis, one of Bewick’s pupils, and to

George Stephenson, the celebrated engineer. Matthew Carr was a

tailor, who lived and died at Righton, in Durham.”--JNO. JACKSON.]

When the second volume of the History of British Birds was published, in

1804, Bewick had reached his fiftieth year; but though his powers as a

wood engraver continued for long afterwards unimpaired, yet he

subsequently produced nothing to extend his fame. The retouching of the

blocks for the repeated editions of the Quadrupeds and the Birds, and

the engraving of new cuts for the latter work, occupied a considerable

part of his time. He also engraved, by himself and pupils, several cuts

for different works, but they are generally such as add nothing to his

reputation. Bewick never engraved with pleasure from another person’s

drawing; in large cuts, consisting chiefly of human figures, he did not

excel. His excellence consisted in the representation of animals and in

landscape. The Fables, which had been projected previous to 1795, also

occasionally occupied his attention. This work, which first appeared in

1818, was by no means so favourably received as the Quadrupeds and the

Birds; and several of Bewick’s greatest admirers, who had been led to

expect something better, openly expressed their disappointment. Dr.

Dibdin, speaking of the Fables, says, “It would be a species of

_scandalum magnatum_ to depreciate any production connected with the

name of Bewick; but I will fearlessly and honestly aver that his Æsop

disappointed me; the more so, as his Birds and Beasts are volumes

perfectly classical of their kind.” The disappointment, however, that

was felt with respect to this work resulted perhaps rather from people

expecting too much than from any deficiency in the cuts as

_illustrations of Fables_. There is a great difference between

representing birds and beasts in their natural character, and

representing them as actors in imaginary scenes. We do not regard the

cock and the fox holding an imaginary conversation, however ably

represented, with the interest with which we look upon each when

faithfully depicted in its proper character. The tail-piece of the bitch

seeing her drowned puppies, at page 364 of the Quadrupeds, edition 1824,

is far more interesting than any cut illustrative of a fable in

Æsop;--we at once feel its truth, and admire it, because it is natural.

Birds and beasts represented as performing human characters can never

interest so much as when naturally depicted in their own. Such cuts may

display great fancy and much skill on the part of the artist, but they

never can excite true feeling. The martyr Cock Robin, killed by that

malicious archer the Sparrow, is not so interesting as plain Robin

Redbreast picking up crumbs at a cottage-door in the snow:--

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Whatever may be the merits or defects of the cuts in those Fables,

Bewick most certainly had very little to do with them; for by far the

greater number were designed by Robert Johnson, and engraved by W. W.

Temple and William Harvey, while yet in their apprenticeship. In the

whole volume there are not more than three of the largest cuts engraved

by Bewick himself.[VII-60] The tail-pieces in this work will not bear a

comparison with those in the Birds; the subjects are often both trite

and tamely treated; the devil and the gallows--Bewick’s two

stock-pieces--occur rather too frequently, considering that the book is

chiefly intended for the improvement of young minds; and in many

instances nature has been sacrificed in order that the moral might be

obvious.

[Illustration: THE CROW AND THE LAMB.]

[Footnote VII-60: The cuts engraved by Bewick himself are: a

tail-piece (a Cow standing under some bushes) to “The Two Frogs,”

page 200. The fable of “The Deer and the Lion,” page 315. “Waiting

for Death,” page 338. He also engraved the figure of the _Lion_ in

the fable of “The Lion and the four Bulls,” page 89 (see cut at

our page 480). The Man, Crow, and Sheep in the fable of the “Eagle

and the Crow,” of which we give the original cut. The Man and two

Birds in the fable of “The Husbandman and the Stork.”]

The letter-press was entirely selected and arranged by Bewick himself,

and one or two of the fables were of his own writing. Though an

excellent illustrator of Natural History, Bewick is but an indifferent

fabulist.[VII-61] Though the work is professedly intended for the

instruction of the young, there are certainly a few tail-pieces

introduced for the _entertainment_ of the more advanced in years; and of

this kind is the old beggar and his trull lying asleep, and a bull

looking over a rail at them. The explanation of this subject would

certainly have little tendency to improve young minds. Bewick, though

very fond of introducing the devil in his cuts to frighten the wicked,

does not appear to have been willing that a ranting preacher should in

his discourses avail himself of the same character, though to effect the

same purpose, as we learn from the following anecdote related by Mr.

Atkinson. “Cant and hypocrisy he (Bewick) very much disliked. A ranter

took up his abode near Cherry-burn, and used daily to horrify the

country people with very familiar details of ultra-stygian proceedings.

Bewick went to hear him, and after listening patiently for some time to

a blasphemous recital of such horrors, at which the poor people were

gaping with affright, he got behind the holder-forth, and pinching his

elbow, addressed him when he turned round with great solemnity: ‘Now

then thou seems to know a great deal about the devil, and has been

frightening us a long while about him: can thou tell me whether he wears

his own hair or a wig?’”--This is a bad joke;--the query might have been

retorted with effect. The engraver, it seems, might introduce his

Satanic majesty _ad libitum_ in his cuts; but when a ranting preacher

takes the same liberty in his discourses, he is called upon to give

proof of personal acquaintance.

[Footnote VII-61: The fable of the Ship Dog is one of those

written by Bewick.]

Bewick’s morality was rather rigid than cheerful; and he was but too

prone to think uncharitably of others, whose conduct and motives, when

weighed in the scales of impartial justice, were perhaps as correct and

as pure as his own. His good men are often represented as somewhat cold,

selfish individuals, with little sympathy for the more unfortunate of

their species, whose errors are as often the result of ignorance as of a

positively vicious character. As a moralist, he was accustomed to look

at the dark rather than the bright side of human nature, and hence his

tendency to brand those with whom he might differ in opinion as fools

and knaves. One of the fables, written by himself, was objected to by

the printer, the late Mr. E. Walker, and at his request it was omitted.

We give a copy of the cut intended for it. The world is represented as

having lost its balance, and legions of his favourite devils are seen

hurled about in a confused vortex. The fable, it is said, was intended

as a satire on the ministerial politics of the time. A thumb-mark is

seen at the upper end of what is intended to represent a piece of paper

forming part of the page of a Bible pasted across the cut. A similar

mark is to be found at page 175 of the Land Birds, first edition, 1797,

and in the bill and receipt prefixed to the Fables, 1818-1823.

[Illustration]

In a novel, entitled “Such is the World,” there is the following

erroneous account of Bewick’s reason for affixing his thumb-mark to this

bill.[VII-62] “Having completed his task to the entire satisfaction of

his own mind, Mr. Bewick bethought him of engraving a frontispiece. But

having some suspicion that the said frontispiece might be pirated by

some of those corsairs who infest the ocean of literature, he resolved

to put a mark on it, whereby all men might distinguish it as readily as

a fisherman distinguishes a haddock[VII-63] from a cod-fish.

Accordingly, he touched with his thumb the little black ball with which

he was wont to ink his cuts, in order to take off proof impressions of

his work: he then very deliberately pressed his thumb on the

frontispiece which he was at that moment engraving, and cut the most

beautiful image of the original, which he designated by the appropriate

words ‘John Bewick, his mark.’” Had the writer looked at the

“frontispiece,” as he calls it, he would have found “_Thomas_,” and not

“_John_.” The conclusion of this account is a fair sample of its general

accuracy. In a preliminary observation the author, with equal

correctness, informs his readers that the work in which this

“frontispiece” appeared was “a superb edition of _Gay’s_ Fables.”

[Footnote VII-62: Mr. Atkinson says that this account determined

Bewick to write a life of himself. It appears that he actually

completed such a work, but that his family at present decline to

publish it. [Mr. Jackson adds, “I engraved two portraits for it:

one was a portrait of the Rev. Wm. Turner, of Newcastle, the other

that of an engineer or millwright, at Morpeth, named Rastack, or

Raistick.”]]

[Footnote VII-63: “There is a tradition that the two black marks

on the opposite sides of the haddock were occasioned by St.

Peter’s thumb and fore-finger when he took the piece of money out

of the fish’s mouth to give it as a tribute to Cæsar.”]

Bewick’s _mark_ is, in fact, added to this bill merely as a jest; the

mode which he took to authenticate the copies that were actually issued

by himself, and not pilfered by any of the workmen employed about the

printing-office,[VII-64] was to print at his own work-shop, in red ink

from a copper-plate, a representation of a piece of sea-weed lying above

the wood-cut which had previously been printed off at a printing-office.

This mode of printing a copper-plate over a wood-cut was a part of one

of the plans which he had devised to prevent the forgery of

bank-notes.[VII-65]

[Footnote VII-64: Bewick’s suspicions in this respect were not

altogether groundless. Happening to go into a bookbinder’s shop in

Newcastle in 1818, he found a copy of his Fables, which had been

sent there to bind before the work had been issued to the public.

He claimed the book as his property, and carried it away; but the

name of the owner who had purchased it, knowing it to have been

dishonestly obtained, was not publicly divulged.]

[Footnote VII-65: About 1799 Bewick frequently corresponded with

Mr. Abraham Newland, cashier of the Bank of England, respecting a

plan which he had devised to prevent the forgery of bank notes. He

was offered a situation in the Bank to superintend the engraving

and printing of the notes, but he refused to leave Newcastle. The

notes of Ridley and Co.’s bank were for many years engraved and

printed under the superintendence of Bewick, who, after Mr.

Beilby’s retirement, still continued the business of copper-plate

engraving and printing, and for this purpose always kept presses

of his own.]

The first of the two following cuts, copied from his Fables, records the

decease of Bewick’s mother, who died on the 20th of February 1785, aged

58; and the second that of his father, who died on the 15th of November

in the same year, aged 70. The last event also marks the day on which he

began to engrave the first cut intended for the Quadrupeds. This cut was

the Arabian Camel, or Dromedary, and he had made very little progress

with it when a messenger arrived from Cherry-burn to inform him of his

father’s death.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Several years previous to his decease Bewick had devised an improvement,

which consisted in printing a subject from two or more blocks,--not in

the manner of chiaro-scuros, but in order to obtain a greater variety of

_tint_, and a better effect than could be obtained, without great

labour, in a cut printed in black ink from a single block. This

improvement, which had been suggested by Papillon in 1768, Bewick

proceeded to carry into effect. The subject which he made choice of to

exemplify what he considered his original discovery, was an old horse

waiting for death.[VII-66] He accordingly made the drawing on a large

block consisting of four different pieces, and forthwith proceeded to

engrave it. He however did not live to complete his intention; for even

this block, which he meant merely for the first impression--the subject

having to be completed by a second--remained unfinished at his

decease.[VII-67] He had, however, finished it all with the exception of

part of the horse’s head, and when in this state he had four impressions

taken about a week before his death. It was on this occasion that he

exclaimed, when the pressman handed him the proof, “I wish I was but

twenty years younger!”

[Footnote VII-66: A small cut of the same subject, though with a

different back-ground, occurs as a tail-piece in the Fables,

1818-1823.]

[Footnote VII-67: The last _bird_ that Bewick engraved was the

Cream-coloured Plover, at page 383, vol. i. of the Birds, in the

edition of 1832. Several years previous to his death he had

projected a History of British Fishes, but very little progress

was made in the work. A few cuts of fishes were engraved, chiefly

by his pupils; that of the John Dory, an impression of which is

said to have been sold for a considerable sum, is one of those not

engraved by Bewick himself. As a work of art the value of an India

paper impression of the John Dory may be about twopence. This cut

is an early performance of Mr. Jackson’s, who also engraved, in

1823, about twenty of the additional tail-pieces in the last

edition of the Birds, 1832.]

This cut, with the head said to have been finished by another person,

was published by Bewick’s son, Mr. Robert Elliott Bewick, in 1832. It is

the largest cut that Bewick ever engraved,[VII-68] but having been left

by him in an unfinished state, it would be impossible to say what he

might have effected had he lived to work out his ideas, and unfair to

judge of it as if it were a finished performance. It is, however, but

just to remark, that the miserable appearance of the poor, worn-out,

neglected animal, is represented with great feeling and

truth,--excepting the head, which is disproportionately large and

heavy,--and that the landscape displays Bewick’s usual fidelity in

copying nature.

[Footnote VII-68: This cut is eleven inches and five-eighths wide

by eight inches and three-fourths high. It is entitled, “Waiting

for Death: Bewick’s last work, left unfinished, and intended to

have been completed by a series of impressions from separate

blocks printed over each other.”]

Bewick’s life affords a useful lesson to all who wish to attain

distinction in art, and at the same time to preserve their independence.

He diligently cultivated his talents, and never trusted to booksellers

or designers for employment. He did not work according to the directions

of others, but struck out a path for himself; and by diligently pursuing

it according to the bent of his own feelings, he acquired both a

competence with respect to worldly means and an ample reward of fame.

The success of his works did not render him inattentive to business; and

he was never tempted by the prospect of increasing wealth to indulge in

expensive pleasures, nor to live in a manner which his circumstances did

not warrant. What he had honestly earned he frugally husbanded; and,

like a prudent man, made a provision for his old age. “The hand of the

diligent,” says Solomon, “maketh rich.” This Bewick felt, and his life

may be cited in the exemplification of the truth of the proverb. He

acquired not indeed great wealth, but he attained a competence, and was

grateful and contented. No favoured worshipper of Mammon, though

possessed of millions obtained by “watching the turn of the market,”

could say more.

He was extremely regular and methodical in his habits of business: until

within a few years of his death he used to come to his shop in Newcastle

from his house in Gateshead at a certain hour in the morning, returning

to his dinner at a certain time, and, as he used to say, _lapping up_ at

night, as if he were a workman employed by the day, and subject to a

loss by being absent a single hour. When any of his works were in the

press, the first thing he did each morning, after calling at his own

shop, was to proceed to the printer’s to see what progress they were

making, and to give directions to the pressmen about printing the

cuts.[VII-69] It is indeed owing to his attention in this respect that

the cuts in all the editions of his works published during his life-time

are so well printed. The edition of the Birds, published in 1832,

displays numerous instances of the want of Bewick’s own superintendence:

either through the carelessness or ignorance of the pressmen, many of

the cuts are quite spoiled.

[Footnote VII-69: When Bewick removed the printing of his works

from Mr. Hodgson’s office to that of Mr. E. Walker, a pressman,

named Barlow, was brought from London for the purpose of printing

the cuts in the second volume of the Birds in a proper manner.

Bewick’s favourite pressman at Mr. Hodgson’s was John Simpson.]

The following cut represents a view of Bewick’s workshop in St.

Nicholas’ Churchyard, Newcastle. The upper room, the two windows of

which are seen in the roof, was that in which he worked in the latter

years of his life. In this shop he engraved the cuts which will

perpetuate his name; and there for upwards of fifty years was he

accustomed to sit, steadily and cheerfully pursuing the labour that he

loved. He used always to work with his hat on; and when any gentleman or

nobleman called upon him, he only removed it for a moment on his first

entering. He used frequently to whistle when at work, and he was seldom

without a large quid of tobacco in his mouth. The prominence occasioned

by the quid, which he kept between his under lip and his teeth, and not

in his cheek, is indicated in most of his portraits.

[Illustration]

A stick, which had been his brother John’s, was a great favourite with

him, and he generally carried it in his walks, always carefully putting

it in a certain place when he entered his workroom. He used to be very

partial to a draught of water in the afternoon, immediately before

leaving work. The water was brought fresh by one of the apprentices from

the _pant_ at the head of the Side, in an earthenware jug, and the glass

which Bewick used to drink the water out of, was, as soon as done with,

carefully locked up in his book-case. One of his apprentices once

happening to break the jug, Bewick scolded him well for his

carelessness, and made him pay twopence towards buying another.

Bewick was a man of athletic make, being nearly six feet high, and

proportionally stout. He possessed great personal courage, and in his

younger days was not slow to repay an insult with personal chastisement.

On one occasion being assaulted by two pitmen on returning from a visit

to Cherry-burn, he resolutely turned upon the aggressors, and, as he

said, “_paid_ them both well.” Though hard-featured, and much marked

with the small-pox, the expression of Bewick’s countenance was manly and

open, and his dark eyes sparkled with intelligence. There is a good bust

of him by Bailey in the Library of the Literary and Philosophical

Society of Newcastle, and the best engraved portrait is perhaps that of

Burnet, after a painting by Ramsey.[VII-70] The portrait on page 510,

engraved on wood, is another attempt to perpetuate the likeness of one

to whom the art owes so much.

[Footnote VII-70: The following is a list of the principal

engraved portraits of Bewick: on copper, by J. A. Kidd, from

a painting by Miss Kirkley, 1798. On copper, by Thomas Ranson,

after a painting by William Nicholson, 1816. On copper, by

I. Summerfield, from a miniature by Murphy--that alluded to in

Bewick’s letter to Mr. C. Gregson, previously quoted--1816. On

copper, by John Burnet, from a painting by James Ramsey, 1817.

Copies of all those portraits, engraved on wood, are given in

Charnley’s edition of Select Fables, 1820; and there is also

prefixed to the work a portrait excellently engraved on wood by

Charlton Nesbit, one of Bewick’s earliest pupils, from a drawing

made on the block by William Nicholson.--In the Memoir of Thomas

Bewick, prefixed to the Natural History of Parrots, Naturalist’s

Library, vol. vi., it is incorrectly stated that Ranson, the

engraver of one of the above portraits, was a pupil of Bewick’s.

He was a pupil of J. A. Kidd, copper-plate engraver, Newcastle.]

In the summer of 1828 Bewick visited London; but he was then evidently

in a declining state of health, and he had lost much of his former

energy of mind. Scarcely anything that he saw interested him, and he

longed no less than in his younger years to return to the banks of the

Tyne. He had ceased to feel an interest in objects which formerly

afforded him great pleasure; for when his old friend, the late Mr.

William Bulmer, drove him round the Regent’s Park, he declined to alight

for the purpose of visiting the collection of animals in the Gardens of

the Zoological Society.

[Illustration: THOMAS BEWICK.]

On his return to Newcastle he appeared for a short time to enjoy his

usual health and spirits. On the Saturday preceding his death he took

the block of the Old Horse waiting for Death to the printer’s, and had

it proved; on the following Monday he became unwell, and after a few

days’ illness he ceased to exist. He died at his house on the

Windmill-hills, Gateshead, on the 8th of November, 1828, aged

seventy-five. He was buried at Ovingham, and the following cut

represents a view of the place of his interment, near the west end of

the church. The tablets seen in the wall are those erected to the memory

of himself and his brother John.

[Illustration]

The following are the inscriptions on the tablets:

In Memory of

JOHN BEWICK,

Engraver,

Who died December, 5, 1795,

Aged 35 years.

His Ingenuity as an

Artist

was excelled only by

his Conduct as a

Man.

The

Burial Place

of

THOMAS BEWICK,

Engraver,

Newcastle.

Isabella, his Wife,

Died 1st February, 1826,

Aged 72 years.

THOMAS BEWICK,

Died 8th of November, 1828,

Aged 75 years.

In an excellent notice of the works of Bewick--apparently written by one

of his townsmen (said to be Mr. T. Doubleday)--in Blackwood’s Magazine

for July, 1825, it is stated that the final tail-piece to Bewick’s

Fables, 1818-1823, is “A View of Ovingham Churchyard;” and in the

Reverend William Turner’s Memoir of Thomas Bewick, in the sixth volume

of the Naturalist’s Library, the same statement is repeated. It is,

however, erroneous; as both the writers might have known had they

thought it worth their while to pay a visit to Ovingham, and take a look

at the church. The following cut, in which is introduced an imaginary

representation of Bewick’s funeral, presents a correct view of the

place. The following popular saying, which is well known in

Northumberland, suggested the introduction of the rain-bow:

“Happy is the bride that the sun shines on,

And happy is the corpse that the rain rains on,--”

meaning that sunshine at a wedding is a sign of happiness in the

marriage state to the bride, and that rain at a funeral is a sign of

future happiness to the person whose remains are about to be interred.

[Illustration]

The following eloquent tribute to the merits of Bewick is from an

article on Wilson’s Illustrations of Zoology in Blackwood’s Magazine for

June, 1828.

“Have we forgotten, in our hurried and imperfect enumeration of wise

worthies,--have we forgotten

‘The Genius that dwells on the banks of the Tyne,’[VII-71]

the Matchless, Inimitable Bewick? No. His books lie on our parlour,

bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room, study table, and are never out of

place or time. Happy old man! The delight of childhood, manhood,

decaying age!--A moral in every tail-piece--a sermon in every vignette.

Not as if from one fountain flows the stream of his inspired spirit,

gurgling from the Crawley Spring so many thousand gallons of the element

every minute, and feeding but one city, our own Edinburgh. But it rather

oozes out from unnumbered springs. Here from one scarcely perceptible

but in the vivid green of the lonesome sward, from which it trickles

away into a little mountain rill--here leaping into sudden life, as from

the rock--here bubbling from a silver pool, overshadowed by a

birch-tree--here like a well asleep in a moss-grown cell, built by some

thoughtful recluse in the old monastic day, with a few words from

Scripture, or some rude engraving, religious as Scripture, OMNE BONUM

DESUPER--OPERA DEI MIRIFICA.”

[Footnote VII-71: This line is adapted from Wordsworth, who, at

the commencement of his verses entitled “The Two Thieves, or The

Last Stage of Avarice,” thus expresses his high opinion of the

talents of Bewick:

“O now that the genius of Bewick were mine,

And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne!

Then the Muses might deal with me just as they chose,

For I’d take my last leave both of verse and of prose.”

_Lyrical Ballads_, vol. ii. p. 199. Edition 1805.]

John Bewick, a younger brother of Thomas, was born at Cherry-burn in

1760, and in 1777 was apprenticed as a wood engraver to his brother and

Mr. Beilby. He undoubtedly assisted his brother in the execution of the

cuts for the two editions of Fables, printed by Mr. Saint in 1779 and

1784; but in those early productions it would be impossible, judging

merely from the style of the engraving, to distinguish the work of the

two brothers. Among the earliest cuts known to have been engraved by

John Bewick, on the expiration of his apprenticeship, are those

contained in a work entitled “Emblems of Mortality,” printed in 1789 for

T. Hodgson, the publisher of the Hieroglyphic Bible, mentioned at page

478. Those cuts, which are very indifferently executed, are copies,

occasionally altered for the worse, of the cuts in Holbein’s Dance of

Death. Whether he engraved them in London, or not, I have been unable to

ascertain; but it is certain that he was living in London in the

following year, and that he resided there till 1795. When residing in

the metropolis he drew and engraved the cuts for “The Progress of Man

and Society,” compiled by Dr. Trusler, and published in 1791; the cuts

for “The Looking Glass of the Mind,” 1796; and also those contained in a

similar work entitled “Blossoms of Morality,” published about the same

time. Though several of those cuts display considerable talent, yet the

best specimens of his abilities as a designer and engraver on wood are

to be found in Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, 1795, and in Somervile’s

Chase, 1796, both printed in quarto, to display the excellence of modern

printing, type-founding, wood-engraving, and paper-making. Mr. Bulmer,

who suggested those editions, being himself a Northumbrian, had been

intimately acquainted with both Thomas and John Bewick. In the preface

to the Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, he is careful to commemorate the

paper-maker, type-founder, and the engravers; but he omits to mention

the name of Robert Johnson, who designed three of the principal

cuts.[VII-72] The merits of this highly-talented young man appear to

have been singularly overlooked by those whose more especial duty it was

to notice them. In the whole of Bewick’s works he is not once mentioned.

Mr. Bulmer also says, that all the cuts were engraved by Thomas and John

Bewick; but though he unquestionably believed so himself, the statement

is not strictly correct; for the four vignette head and tail-pieces to

the Traveller and the Deserted Village were engraved by C. Nesbit. The

vignettes on the title-pages, the large cut of the old woman gathering

water-cresses, and the tail-piece at the end of the volume, were drawn

and engraved by John Bewick; the remainder were engraved by Thomas.

[Footnote VII-72: The cut of the Hermit at his morning devotion

was drawn by John Johnson, a cousin of Robert, and also one of

Bewick’s pupils.]

The cuts in this book are generally executed in a free and effective

style, but are not remarkable as specimens of wood engraving, unless we

take into consideration the time when they were published. The best in

point of execution are, The Hermit at his morning devotion, and The

Angel, Hermit, and Guide, both engraved by Thomas Bewick; the manner in

which the engraver has executed the foliage in these two cuts is

extremely beautiful and natural. It is said that George III. thought so

highly of the cuts in this book that he could not believe that they were

engraved on wood; and that his bookseller, Mr. George Nicol, obtained

for his Majesty a sight of the blocks in order that he might be

convinced of the fact by his own inspection. This anecdote is sometimes

produced as a proof of the great excellence of the cuts, though it might

with greater truth be cited as a proof of his Majesty being totally

unacquainted with the process of wood engraving, and of his not being

able to distinguish a wood-cut from a copper-plate. If Bewick’s

reputation as a wood engraver rested on those cuts, it certainly would

not stand very high. Much better things of the same kind have been

executed since that time by persons who are generally considered as

having small claims to distinction as wood engravers.

The cuts in the Chase were all, except one, designed by John Bewick; but

in consequence of the declining state of his health he was not able to

engrave them. Soon after he had finished the drawings on the block he

left London for the north, in the hope of deriving benefit from his

native air. His disorder, however, continued to increase; and, within a

few weeks from the time of his return, he died at Ovingham, on the 5th

of December, 1795, aged thirty-five.

The cuts in the Chase, which were all, except one, engraved by Thomas

Bewick, are, on the whole, superior in point of execution to those in

the Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell. Though boldly designed, some of them

display great defects in composition, and among the most objectionable

in this respect are the Huntsman and three Hounds, at page 5; the

conclusion of the Chase, page 31; and George III. stag-hunting, page 93.

Among the best, both as respects design and execution, are: Morning,

vignette on title-page, remarkably spirited; Hounds, page 25; a Stag

drinking, page 27; Fox-hunting, page 63; and Otter-hunting, page 99. The

final tail-piece, which has been spoiled in the engraving, was executed

by one of Bewick’s pupils.

[Illustration]

John Bewick, as a designer and engraver on wood, is much inferior to his

brother. Though several of his cuts possess considerable merit with

respect to design, by far the greater number are executed in a dry,

harsh manner. His best cuts may be readily distinguished from his

brother’s by the greater contrast of black and white in the cuts

engraved by John, and by the dry and withered appearance of the foliage

of the trees. The above is a reduced copy of a cut entitled the “Sad

Historian,” drawn and engraved by John Bewick, in the Poems by Goldsmith

and Parnell.

The most of John Bewick’s cuts are much better conceived than engraved;

and this perhaps may in a great measure have arisen from their having

been chiefly executed for children’s books, in which excellence of

engraving was not required. His style of engraving is not good; for

though some of his cuts are extremely _effective_ from the contrast of

light and shade, yet the lines in almost every one are coarse and harsh,

and “laid in,” to use a technical expression, in a hard and tasteless

manner. Dry, stiff, parallel lines, scarcely ever deviating into a

pleasing curve, are the general characteristic of most of his small

cuts. As he reached the age of thirty-five without having produced any

cut which displays much ability in the execution, it is not likely that

he would have excelled as a wood engraver had his life been prolonged.

The following is a fac-simile of one of the best of his cuts in the

Blossoms of Morality, published about 1796. It exemplifies his manner of

strongly contrasting positive black with pure white; and the natural

attitudes of the women afford a tolerably fair specimen of his talents

as a designer.

[Illustration]

Robert Johnson, though not a wood engraver, has a claim to a brief

notice here on account of the excellence of several of the tail-pieces

designed by him in Bewick’s Birds, and from his having made the drawings

for most of the wood-cuts in Bewick’s Fables. He was born in 1770, at

Shotley, a village in Northumberland, about six miles to the south-west

of Ovingham; and in 1778 was placed by his father, who at that time

resided in Gateshead, as an apprentice to Beilby and Bewick to be

instructed in copper-plate engraving. The plates which are generally

supposed to have been executed by him during his apprenticeship possess

very little merit, nor does he appear to have been desirous to excel as

an engraver. His great delight consisted in sketching from nature and in

painting in water-colours; and in this branch of art, while yet an

apprentice, he displayed talents of very high order.[VII-73] He was

frequently employed by his master in drawing and making designs, and at

his leisure hours he took every opportunity of improving himself in his

favourite art. The Earl of Bute happening to call at Beilby and Bewick’s

shop on one occasion when passing through Newcastle, a portfolio of

Johnson’s drawings, made at his leisure hours, was shown to his

lordship, who was so much pleased with them that he selected as many as

amounted to forty pounds. This sum Beilby and Bewick appropriated to

themselves, on the ground that, as he was their apprentice, those

drawings, as well as any others that he might make, were legally their

property. Johnson’s friends, however, thinking differently, instituted

legal proceedings for the recovery of the money, and obtained a decision

in their favour. One of the pleas set up by Beilby and Bewick was, that

the drawings properly belonged to them, as they taught him the art, and

that the making of such drawings was part of his business. This plea,

however, failed; it was elicited on the examination of one of their own

apprentices, Charlton Nesbit, that neither he nor any other of his

fellow apprentices was taught the art of drawing in water-colours by

their masters, and that it formed no part of their necessary instruction

as engravers.

[Footnote VII-73: Johnson’s water-colour drawings for most of the

cuts in Bewick’s Fables, are extremely beautiful. They are the

size of the cuts; and as a set are perhaps the finest small

drawings of the kind that were ever made. Their finish and

accuracy of drawing are admirable--they look like miniature _Paul

Potters_. It is known to only a few persons that they were drawn

by Johnson during his apprenticeship. Most of them were copied on

the block by William Harvey, and the rest chiefly by Bewick

himself.]

On the expiration of his apprenticeship Johnson gave up, in a great

measure, the practice of copper-plate engraving, and applied himself

almost exclusively to drawing. In 1796 he was engaged by Messrs.

Morison, booksellers and publishers of Perth, to draw from the original

paintings the portraits intended to be engraved in “the Scottish

Gallery,” a work edited by Pinkerton, and published about 1799. When at

Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane, copying some

portraits painted by Jameson, the Scottish Vandyke, he caught a severe

cold, which, being neglected, increased to a fever. In the violence of

the disorder he became delirious, and, from the ignorance of those who

attended him, the unfortunate young artist, far from home and without a

friend to console him, was bound and treated like a madman. A physician

having been called in, by his order blisters were applied, and a

different course of treatment adopted. Johnson recovered his senses, but

it was only for a brief period; being of a delicate constitution, he

sank under the disorder. He died at Kenmore on the 29th October, 1796,

in the twenty-sixth year of his age.[VII-74]

[Footnote VII-74: John Johnson, a cousin of Robert, was also an

apprentice of Beilby and Bewick. He was a wood engraver, and

executed a few of the tail-pieces in the History of British Birds.

Like Robert, he possessed a taste for drawing; and the cut of the

Hermit at his morning devotion, engraved by T. Bewick, in Poems by

Goldsmith and Parnell, was designed by him. He died at Newcastle

about 1797, shortly after the expiration of his apprenticeship.]

The following is a copy of a cut--from a design by Johnson

himself--which was drawn on the wood, and engraved by Charlton Nesbit,

as a tribute of his regard for the memory of his friend and

fellow-pupil.

[Illustration]

The next cut represents a view of a monument on the south side of

Ovingham church, erected to the memory of Robert Johnson by a few

friends who admired his talents, and respected him on account of his

amiable private character.

[Illustration]

Charlton Nesbit, who is justly entitled to be ranked with the best wood

engravers of his time, was born in 1775 at Swalwell, in the county of

Durham, about five miles westward of Gateshead, and when about fourteen

years of age was apprenticed to Beilby and Bewick to learn the art of

wood engraving. During his apprenticeship he engraved a few of the

tail-pieces in the first volume of the History of British Birds, and all

the head and tail-pieces, except two, in the Poems by Goldsmith and

Parnell, printed by Bulmer in 1795. Shortly after the expiration of his

apprenticeship he began to engrave a large cut, containing a view of St.

Nicholas Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, from a drawing by his fellow-pupil,

Robert Johnson. We here present a reduced copy of this cut, which is one

of the largest ever engraved in England.[VII-75] The original was

engraved on a block consisting of twelve different pieces of box, firmly

cramped together, and mounted on a plate of cast iron to prevent their

warping. For this cut, which was first published about 1799, Mr. Nesbit

received a medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and

Manufactures.

[Footnote VII-75: The original cut, including the border, is

fifteen inches wide by about twelve inches high.]

[Illustration]

About 1799 Mr. Nesbit came to London, where he continued to reside till

1815. During his residence there he engraved a number of cuts for

various works, chiefly from the designs of the late Mr. John

Thurston,[VII-76] who at that time was the principal, and indeed almost

the only artist of any talent in London, who made drawings on the block

for wood engravers. Some of the best of his cuts executed during this

period are to be found in a History of England printed for R. Scholey,

and in a work entitled Religious Emblems, published by R. Ackermann and

Co. in 1808. The cuts in the latter work were engraved by Nesbit,

Clennell, Branston, and Hole, from drawings by Thurston; and they are

unquestionably the best of their kind which up to that time had appeared

in England. Clennell’s are the most artist-like in their execution and

effect, while Nesbit’s are engraved with greater care. Branston, except

in one cut,--Rescued from the Floods,--does not appear to such advantage

in this work as his northern rivals. There is only one cut--Seed

sown--engraved by Hole. The following may be mentioned as the best of

Nesbit’s cuts in this work:--The World Weighed, The Daughters of

Jerusalem, Sinners hiding in the Grave, and Wounded in the Mental Eye.

The best of Clennell’s are:--Call to Vigilance, the World made Captive,

and Fainting for the Living Waters. These are perhaps the three best

cuts of their kind that Clennell ever engraved.

[Footnote VII-76: Mr. Thurston was a native of Scarborough, and

originally a copper-plate engraver. He engraved, under the late

Mr. James Heath, parts of the two celebrated plates of the death

of Major Peirson and the Dead Soldier. He was one of the best

designers on wood of his time. He drew very beautifully, but his

designs are too frequently deficient in natural character and

feeling. He died in 1821.]

In 1815 Mr. Nesbit returned to his native place, where he continued to

reside until 1830. While living in the country, though he did not

abandon the art, yet the cuts executed by him during this period are

comparatively few. In 1818, when residing in the North, he engraved a

large cut of Rinaldo and Armida for Savage’s Hints on Decorative

Printing: this cut and another, the Cave of Despair, in the same work

and of the same size, engraved by the late Robert Branston, were

expressly given to display the perfection to which modern wood engraving

had been brought. The foliage, the trees, and the drapery in Nesbit’s

cut are admirably engraved; but the lines in the bodies of the figures

are too much broken and “_chopped up_.” This, however, was not the fault

of the engraver, but of the designer, Mr. J. Thurston. The lines, which

now have a dotted appearance, were originally continuous and distinct;

but Mr. Thurston objecting to them as being too dark, Nesbit went over

his work again, and with immense labour reduced the strength of his

lines, and gave them their present dotted appearance. As a specimen of

the engraver’s abilities, the first proof submitted to the designer was

superior to the last.

In order to give a fictitious value to Mr. Savage’s book, most of the

cuts, as soon as a certain number of impressions were taken, were sawn

across, but not through, in several places, and impressions of them when

thus defaced were given in the work.[VII-77] Nesbit’s cut was, however,

carefully repaired, and the back part of Armida’s head having been

altered, the impressions from the block thus amended were actually given

in the work itself as the _best_, instead of those which were taken

before it was defaced. This re-integration of the block was the work of

the late Mr. G. W. Bonner, Mr. Branston’s nephew. The transverse pieces

are so skilfully inserted, and engraved so much in the style of the

adjacent parts, that it is difficult to discover where the defacing saw

had passed.

[Footnote VII-77: The practice of thus giving a fictitious value

to works of limited circulation, and which are not likely to reach

a second edition during the lifetime of their authors, is less

frequent now than it was a few years ago. It is little more than a

trick to enhance the price of the book to subscribers, by giving

them an assurance that no second edition can appear with the same

embellishments. In three cases out of four where the plates and

cuts of a work have been intentionally destroyed, there was little

prospect of such work reaching a second edition during the

writer’s life.]

In 1830 Mr. Nesbit returned to London, where he continued to reside

until his death, which took place at Queen’s Elms, the 11th of November

1838, aged 63. Some of the best of his cuts are contained in the second

series of Northcote’s Fables; and the following, of his execution, may

be ranked among the finest productions of the art of wood engraving in

modern times:--The Robin and the Sparrow, page 1; The Hare and the

Bramble, page 127; The Peach and the Potatoe, page 129; and The Cock,

the Dog, and the Fox, page 238. Nesbit is unquestionably the best wood

engraver that has proceeded from the great northern hive of the art--the

workshop of Thomas Bewick.

Luke Clennell, one of the most distinguished of Bewick’s pupils as a

designer and painter, as well as an engraver on wood, was born at

Ulgham, a village near Morpeth, in Northumberland, on the 8th of April,

1781. At an early age he was placed with a relation, a grocer in

Morpeth, and continued with him, assisting in the shop as an apprentice,

until he was sixteen. Some drawings which he made when at Morpeth having

attracted attention, and he himself showing a decided predilection for

the art, his friends were induced to place him as a wood engraver with

Bewick, to whom he was bound apprentice for seven years on the 8th of

April, 1797. He in a short time made great proficiency in wood

engraving; and as he drew with great correctness and power, Bewick

employed him to copy, on the block, several of Robert Johnson’s

drawings, and to engrave them as tail-pieces for the second volume of

the History of British Birds. Clennell for a few months after the

expiration of his apprenticeship continued to work for Bewick, who

chiefly employed him in engraving some of the cuts for a History of

England, published by Wallis and Scholey, 46, Paternoster Row. Clennell,

who was paid only two guineas apiece for each of those cuts, having

learnt that Bewick received five, sent to the publisher a proof of one

of them--Alfred in the Danish Camp--stating that it was of his own

engraving. In the course of a few days Clennell received an answer from

the publisher, inviting him to come to London, and offering him

employment until all the cuts intended for the work should be finished.

He accepted the offer, and shortly afterwards set out for London, where

he arrived about the end of autumn, 1804.[VII-78]

[Footnote VII-78: Between the expiration of his apprenticeship and

his departure for London he appears to have engraved several

excellent cuts for a school-book entitled “The Hive of Ancient and

Modern Literature,” printed by S. Hodgson, Newcastle.--Clennell’s

fellow-pupils were Henry Hole and Edward Willis. Mr. Hole engraved

the cuts in M’Creery’s Press, 1803, and in Poems by Felicia

Dorothea Browne, (afterwards Mrs. Hemans) 1808. Mr. Hole gave up

wood engraving several years ago on succeeding to a large estate

in Derbyshire. Mr. Willis, who was a cousin of Mr. George

Stephenson, the celebrated engineer, died in London, the 10th of

February, 1842, aged 58; but had for some time previously entirely

abandoned the art.]

Most of Clennell’s cuts are distinguished by their free and

_artist-like_ execution and by their excellent effect; but though

generally spirited, they are sometimes rather coarsely engraved. He was

accustomed to improve Thurston’s designs by occasionally heightening the

effect.[VII-79] To such alterations Thurston at first objected; but

perceiving that the cuts when engraved were thus very much improved, he

afterwards allowed Clennell to increase the lights and deepen the

shadows according to his own judgment. An admirable specimen of

Clennell’s engraving is to be found in an octavo edition of Falconer’s

Shipwreck, printed for Cadell and Davies, 1808. It occurs as a vignette

to the second canto at p. 43, and the subject is a ship running before

the wind in a gale. The motion of the waves, and the gloomy appearance

of the sky, are represented with admirable truth and feeling. The dark

shadow on the waters to the right gives wonderful effect to the white

crest of the wave in front; and the whole appearance of the cut is

indicative of a gloomy and tempestuous day, and of an increasing storm.

Perhaps no engraving of the same kind, either on copper or wood, conveys

the idea of a storm at sea with greater fidelity.[VII-80] The drawing

was made on the block by Thurston; but the spirit and _effect_,--the

lights and shadows, the apparent seething of the waves, and the troubled

appearance of the sky,--were introduced by Clennell. All the other cuts

in this edition of the Shipwreck are of his engraving; but though well

executed, they do not require any especial notice. Two of them, which

were previously designed for another work, are certainly not

_illustrations_ of Falconer’s Shipwreck.

[Footnote VII-79: He also invariably corrected the _outline_ of

Thurston’s animals; “Fainting for the Living Waters” in the

Religious Emblems, and a little subject in an edition of Beattie’s

Minstrel, published at Alnwick, representing a shepherd and dog on

the brow of a hill, were thus improved by Clennell.]

[Footnote VII-80: Mr. Jackson was in possession of the first proof

of this pretty wood engraving, inscribed Twickenham, September 10,

1807, where Clennell was residing at the time.]

[Illustration: DIPLOMA OF THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY

_Reduced to one-fourth of the original size_]

Clennell’s largest cut is that which he engraved for the diploma of the

Highland Society, from a design by Benjamin West, President of the Royal

Academy; and for this he received fifty guineas. The original drawing

was made on paper, and Clennell gave Thurston fifteen pounds for copying

on the block the figures within the circle: the supporters, a Highland

soldier and a fisherman, he copied himself. The block on which he first

began to engrave this cut consisted of several pieces of box veneered

upon beech; and after he had been employed upon it for about two months,

it one afternoon suddenly split when he was at tea. Clennell, hearing it

crack, immediately suspected the cause; and on finding it rent in such a

manner that there was no chance of repairing it, he, in a passion that

the labour already bestowed on it should be lost, threw all the

tea-things into the fire. In the course of a few days however, he got a

new block made, consisting of solid pieces of box firmly screwed and

cramped together; and having paid Thurston fifteen pounds more for

re-drawing the figures within the circle, and having again copied the

supporters, he proceeded with renewed spirit to complete his work. For

engraving this cut he received a hundred and fifty guineas--he paying

Thurston himself for the drawing on the block; and the Society for the

Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures presented him with their gold

medal, May 30, 1809. This cut is characteristic of Clennell’s style of

engraving--the lines are in some places coarse, and in others the

execution is careless; the more important parts are, however, engraved

with great spirit; and the cut, as a whole, is bold and effective.

Cross-hatchings are freely introduced, not so much, perhaps, because

they were necessary, as to show that the engraver could execute such

kind of work,--the vulgar error that cross-hatchings could not be

executed on wood having been at that time extremely prevalent among

persons who had little knowledge of the art, and who yet vented their

absurd notions on the subject as if they were undeniable truths. The

preceding is a reduced copy of this cut.[VII-81] The original block,

when only a very limited number of impressions had been printed off, was

burnt in the fire at Mr. Bensley’s printing-office. The subject was

afterwards re-engraved on a block of the same size by John Thompson.

[Footnote VII-81: The original cut is about ten inches and a half

high, measured from the line below the inscription, by about

thirteen inches and a half wide, measured across the centre.]

The illustrations to an edition of Rogers’s Poems, 1812, engraved from

pen-and-ink drawings by Thomas Stothard, R.A., may be fairly ranked

among the best of the wood-cuts engraved by Clennell. They are executed

with the feeling of an artist, and are admirable representations of the

original drawings.[VII-82] Stothard himself was much pleased with them;

but he thought that when wood engravers attempted to express more than a

copy of a pen-and-ink drawing, and introduced a variety of tints in the

manner of copper-plate engravings, they exceeded the legitimate

boundaries of the art. A hundred wood-cuts by Bewick, Nesbit, Clennell,

and Thompson might, however, be produced to show that this opinion was

not well founded.

[Footnote VII-82: Several additional cuts of the same kind,

engraved with no less ability by J. Thompson, were inserted in a

subsequent edition.]

Clennell, who drew beautifully in water-colours, made many of the

drawings for the Border Antiquities; and the encouragement which he

received as a designer and painter made him resolve to entirely abandon

wood engraving. With this view he laboured diligently to improve himself

in painting, and in a short time made such progress that his pictures

attracted the attention of the Directors of the British Institution. In

1814, the Earl of Bridgewater employed him to paint a large picture of

the entertainment given to the Allied Sovereigns in the Guildhall by the

city of London. He experienced great difficulty in obtaining sketches of

the numerous distinguished persons whose portraits it was necessary to

give in the picture; and he lost much time, and suffered considerable

anxiety, in procuring those preliminary materials for his work. Having

at length completed his sketches, he began the picture, and had made

considerable progress in it when, in April 1817, he suddenly became

insane, and the work was interrupted.[VII-83] It has been said that his

malady arose from intense application, and from anxiety respecting the

success of his work. This, however, can scarcely be correct; he had

surmounted his greatest difficulties, and was proceeding regularly and

steadily with the painting, when he suddenly became deprived of his

reason. One of his fellow-pupils when he was with Bewick, who was

intimate with him, and was accustomed to see him frequently, never

observed any previous symptom of insanity in his behaviour, and never

heard him express any particular anxiety about the work on which he was

engaged.

[Footnote VII-83: This painting was afterwards finished by

E. Bird, R.A., who also became insane.]

Within a short time after Clennell had lost his reason, his wife also

became insane;[VII-84] and the malady being accompanied by a fever, she

after a short illness expired, leaving three young children to deplore

the death of one parent and the confirmed insanity of the other. These

most distressing circumstances excited the sympathy of several noblemen

and gentlemen; and a committee having been appointed to consider of the

best means of raising a fund for the support of Clennell’s family, it

was determined to publish by subscription an engraving from one of his

pictures. The subject made choice of was the Decisive Charge of the Life

Guards at Waterloo, for which Clennell had received a reward from the

British Institution. It was engraved by Mr. W. Bromley, and published in

1821. The sum thus raised was, after paying for the engraving, vested in

trustees for the benefit of Clennell’s children, and for the purpose of

providing a small annuity for himself.

[Footnote VII-84: Clennell’s wife was a daughter of the late

C. Warren, one of the best copper-plate engravers of his time.]

Clennell, after having been confined for three or four years in a

lunatic asylum in London, so far recovered that it was no longer

necessary to keep him in a state of restraint. He was accordingly sent

down to the North, and lived for several years in a state of harmless

insanity with a relation in the neighbourhood of Newcastle; amusing

himself with making drawings, engraving little wood-cuts, and

occasionally writing _poetry_. Upwards of sixty of those drawings are

now lying before me, displaying at once so much of his former genius and

of his present imbecility that it is not possible to regard them,

knowing whose they are, without a deep feeling of commiseration for his

fate. He used occasionally to call on Bewick, and he once asked for a

block to engrave. Bewick, to humour him, gave him a piece of wood, and

left him to choose his own subject; and Clennell, on his next visit,

brought with him the cut finished: it was like the attempt of a boy when

first beginning to engrave, but he thought it one of the most successful

of his productions in the art. The following specimens of his cuts and

of his poetry were respectively engraved and written in 1828.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

SONG.

Good morning to you, Mary,

It glads me much to see thee once again;

What joy, since thee I’ve heard!

Heaven such beauty ever deign,

Mary of the vineyard!

THE EVENING STAR.

Look! what is it, with twinkling light,

That brings such joy, serenely bright,

That turns the dusk again to light?--

’Tis the Evening Star!

What is it with purest ray,

That brings such peace at close of day,

That lights the traveller on his way?--

’Tis the Evening Star!

What is it, of purest holy ray,

That brings to man the promised day,

And peace?--

’Tis the Evening Star!

COMPENDIUM POETICA.

A drop of heaven’s treasure, on an angel’s wing,

Such heaven alone can bring;--

The painted hues upon the rose,

In heaven’s shower reposing,

Is an earthly treasure of such measure.

The butterfly, in his spell,

Upon the rosy prism doth dwell,

And as he doth fly, in his tour

From flower to flower,

Is seen for a while

Every care to beguile,

And so doth wing his little way,

A little fairy of the day!

A FLOWERET.

Where lengthened ray

Gildeth the bark upon her way;

Where vision is lost in space,

To trace,

As resting on a stile,

In ascent of half a mile--

It is when the birds do sing,

In the evening of the spring.

The broad shadow from the tree,

Falling upon the slope,

You may see,

O’er flowery mead,

Where doth a pathway lead

To the topmost ope--

The yellow butter-cup

And purple crow-foot,

The waving grass up,

Rounding upon the but--

The spreading daisy

In the clover maze,

The wild rose upon the hedge-row,

And the honey-suckle blow

For village girl

To dress her chaplet--

Or some youth, mayhap, let--

Or bind the linky trinket

For some earl--

Or trim up in plaits her hair

With much seeming care,

As fancy may think it--

Or with spittle moisten,

Or half wink it,

Or to music inclined,

Or to sleep in the soft wind.

St Peter’s, August 1828.

L. C.

About 1831, Clennell having become much worse, his friends were again

compelled to place him under restraint. He was accordingly conveyed to a

lunatic asylum near Newcastle, where he is still living. Until within

this last year or two, he continued to amuse himself with drawing and

writing poetry, and perhaps may do so still. It is to be hoped that,

though his condition appear miserable to us, he is not miserable

himself; that though deprived of the light of reason, he may yet enjoy

imaginary pleasures of which we can form no conception; and that his

confinement occasions to him

“Small feeling of privation, none of pain.”[VII-85]

[Footnote VII-85: Clennell died in the Lunatic Asylum, Feb. 9,

1840, in his fifty-ninth year.]

William Harvey, another distinguished pupil of Bewick, and one whose

earlier engravings are only surpassed by his more recent productions as

a designer on wood, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 13th of July 1796.

Having from an early age shown great fondness for drawing, he was at

the age of fourteen apprenticed to Thomas Bewick to learn the art of

engraving on wood.[VII-86] In conjunction with his fellow-pupil, W. W.

Temple, he engraved most of the cuts in Bewick’s Fables, 1818; and as he

excelled in drawing as well as in engraving, he was generally entrusted

by Bewick to make the drawings on the block after Robert Johnson’s

designs. One of the best cuts engraved by Harvey during his

apprenticeship was a vignette for the title-page of a small work

entitled “Cheviot: a Poetical Fragment,” printed at Newcastle in 1817.

This cut, which was also drawn by himself, is extremely beautiful both

in design and execution; the trees and the foliage are in particular

excellently represented; and as a small picturesque subject it is one of

the best he ever engraved.

[Footnote VII-86: Isaac Nicholson, now established as a wood

engraver at Newcastle, was the apprentice immediately preceding

Harvey. W. W. Temple, who abandoned the business on the expiration

of his apprenticeship for that of a draper and silk-mercer, came

to Bewick shortly after Harvey; and the younger apprentice was

John Armstrong.]

Harvey was a great favourite of Bewick, who presented him with a copy of

the History of British Birds as a new year’s gift on the 1st of January

1815, and at the same time addressed to him the following admonitory

letter. Mr. Harvey is a distinguished artist, a kind son, an

affectionate husband, a loving father, and in every relation of life a

most amiable man: he has not, however, been exposed to any plots or

conspiracies, nor been persecuted by envy and malice, as his master

anticipated; but, on the contrary, his talents and his amiable character

have procured for him public reputation and private esteem.

“Gateshead, 1st January, 1815.

“DEAR WILLIAM,

“I sent you last night the History of British Birds, which I beg your

acceptance of as a new year’s gift, and also as a token of my respect.

Don’t trouble yourself about thanking me for them; but, instead of doing

so, let those books put you in mind of the duties you have to perform

through life. Look at them (as long as they last) on every new year’s

day, and at the same time resolve, with the help of the all-wise but

unknowable God, to conduct yourself on every occasion as becomes a good

man.--Be a good son, a good brother, (and when the time comes) a good

husband, a good father, and a good member of society. Peace of mind will

then follow you like a shadow; and when your mind grows rich in

integrity, you will fear the frowns of no man, and only smile at the

plots and conspiracies which it is probable will be laid against you by

envy, hatred, and malice.

“To William Harvey, jun. Westgate.

[HW: Thomas Bewick].”

In September, 1817, Mr. Harvey came to London; and shortly afterwards,

with a view of obtaining a correct knowledge of the principles of

drawing, he became a pupil of Mr. B. R. Haydon, and he certainly could

not have had a better master. While improving himself under Mr. Haydon,

he drew and engraved from a picture by that eminent artist his large cut

of the Death of Dentatus, which was published in 1821.[VII-87] As a

large subject, this is unquestionably one of the most elaborately

engraved wood-cuts that has ever appeared. It scarcely, however, can be

considered a successful specimen of the art; for though the execution in

many parts be superior to anything of the kind, either of earlier or

more recent times, the cut, as a whole, is rather an attempt to rival

copper-plate engraving than a perfect specimen of engraving on wood,

displaying the peculiar advantages and excellences of the art within its

own legitimate bounds. More has been attempted than can be efficiently

represented by means of wood engraving. The figure of Dentatus is indeed

one of the finest specimens of the art that has ever been executed, and

the other figures in the fore-ground display no less talent; but the

rocks are of too uniform a _tone_, and some of the more distant figures

appear to _stick_ to each other. These defects, however, result from the

very nature of the art, not from inability in the engraver; for all that

wood engraving admits of he has effected. It is unnecessary to say more

of this cut here: some observations relating to the details, illustrated

with specimens of the best engraved parts, will be found in the next

chapter.

[Footnote VII-87: This cut is about fifteen inches high by about

eleven inches and one quarter wide. It was engraved on a block

consisting of seven different pieces, the joinings of which are

apparent in impressions that have not been subsequently _touched_

with Indian ink.]

About 1824 Mr. Harvey entirely gave up the practice of engraving, and

has since exclusively devoted himself to designing for copper-plate and

wood engravers. His designs engraved on copper are, however, few when

compared with the immense number engraved on wood. The copper-plate

engravings consist principally of the illustrations in a collected

edition of Miss Edgeworth’s Works, 1832; in Southey’s edition of

Cowper’s Works, first published in 1836, and since by Mr. Bohn in his

Standard Library; and in the small edition of Dr. Lingard’s History of

England.

[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF MR. HARVEY’S WOOD-ENGRAVING.

FROM DR. HENDERSON’S HISTORY OF ANCIENT AND MODERN WINES.]

[Illustration]

The beautiful vignettes and tail-pieces in Dr. Henderson’s History of

Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824, drawn and engraved by Mr. Harvey, may

be considered the ground-work of his reputation as a designer, and by

the kindness of Dr. Henderson we are enabled (in this second edition)

to present impressions of seven of them. The cuts in the first and

second series of Northcote’s Fables, 1828, 1833;[VII-88] in the Tower

Menagerie, 1828; in the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society,

1831; and in Latrobe’s Solace of Song, 1837, were all drawn by him.

Among the smaller works illustrated with wood-cuts, and published

about the same time as the preceding, the following may be mentioned

as containing beautiful specimens of his talents as a designer on

wood:--The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green; The Children in the Wood;

A Story without an End, translated from the German by Mrs. Austin; and

especially his one hundred and twenty beautiful designs for the Paradise

Lost, and other poems of Milton, and his designs for Thomson’s Seasons,

from which two works we select four examples with the view of exhibiting

at the same time the talents of the distinguished engravers, viz.,

John Thompson and Charles Gray. For various other works he has also

furnished, in all, between three and four thousand designs. As a

designer on wood, he is decidedly superior to the majority of artists of

the present day; and to his excellence in this respect, wood engraving

is chiefly indebted for the very great encouragement which it has of

late received in this country.

[Footnote VII-88: What may be considered the sketches for the

principal cuts were supplied by Northcote himself. The following

account of the manner in which he _composed_ them is extracted

from a Sketch of his Life, prefixed to the second series of his

Fables, 1833:--“It was by a curious process that Mr. Northcote

really made the designs for these Fables the amusement of his old

age, for his talent as a draftsman, excelling as he did in

animals, was rarely required by this undertaking. His general

practice was to collect great numbers of prints of animals, and to

cut them out; he then moved such as he selected about upon the

surface of a piece of paper until he had illustrated the fable by

placing them to his satisfaction, and had thus composed his

subject; then fixing the different figures with paste to the

paper, a few pen or pencil touches rendered this singular

composition complete enough to place in the hands of Mr. Harvey,

by whom it was adapted or freely translated on the blocks for the

engravers.”--Mr. Harvey’s work was something more than free

translation. He _completed_ that which Northcote merely suggested.

The tail-pieces and letters are all of Mr. Harvey’s own invention

and drawing.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The two cuts on pages 533 and 534 are also from drawings by Mr. Harvey;

and both are printed from casts. The first is one of the illustrations

of the Children in the Wood, published by Jennings and Chaplin, 1831;

and the subject is the uncle bargaining with the two ruffians for the

murder of the children. This cut is freely and effectively executed,

without any display of useless labour.

[Illustration]

The second is one of the illustrations of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal

Green, published by Jennings and Chaplin, in 1832. The subject

represents the beggar’s daughter and her four suitors, namely,--the

gentleman of good degree, the gallant young knight in disguise, the

merchant of London, and her master’s son. This cut, though well

engraved, is scarcely equal to the preceding. It is, however, necessary

to observe that these cuts are not given as specimens of the engravers’

talents, but merely as two subjects designed by Mr. Harvey.

[Illustration]

What has been called the “London School” of wood engraving produced

nothing that would bear a comparison with the works of Bewick and his

pupils until the late Robert Branston began to engrave on wood. About

1796, the best of the London engravers was J. Lee. He engraved the cuts

for the “Cheap Repository,” a collection of religious and moral tracts,

printed between 1794 and 1798, and sold by J. Marshall, London, and

S. Hazard, Bath. Those cuts, though coarsely executed, as might be

expected, considering the work for which they were intended, frequently

display considerable merit in the design; and in this respect several of

them are scarcely inferior to the cuts drawn and engraved by John Bewick

in Dr. Trusler’s Progress of Man and Society. Mr. Lee died in March,

1804; and on his decease, his apprentice, Henry White, went to

Newcastle, and served out the remainder of his time with Thomas Bewick.

James Lee, a son of Mr. J. Lee, the elder, is also a wood engraver; he

executed the portraits in Hansard’s Typographia, 1825.

[Illustration:

_Rob. Branston._]

Robert Branston, like Bewick, acquired his knowledge of wood engraving

without the instructions of a master. He was born at Lynn, in Norfolk,

in 1778, and died in London in 1827. He served his apprenticeship to his

father, a general copper-plate engraver and heraldic painter, who seems

to have carried on the same kind of miscellaneous business as Mr.

Beilby, the master of Bewick. About 1802 Mr. Branston came to London,

and finding that wood engraving was much encouraged, he determined to

apply himself to that art. Some of his first productions were cuts for

lottery bills; but as he improved in the practice of engraving on wood,

he began to engrave cuts for the illustration of books. His style of

engraving is peculiarly his own, and perfectly distinct from that of

Bewick. He engraved human figures and in-door scenes with great

clearness and precision; while Bewick’s chief excellence consisted in

the natural representation of quadrupeds, birds, landscapes, and

_road-side_ incidents. In the representation of trees and of natural

scenery, Branston has almost uniformly failed. Some of the best of his

earlier productions are to be found in the History of England, published

by Scholey, 1804-1810; in Bloomfield’s Wild Flowers, 1806; and in a

quarto volume entitled “Epistles in Verse,” and other poems by George

Marshall, 1812.

The best specimen of Mr. Branston’s talents as a wood engraver is a

large cut of the Cave of Despair, in Savage’s Hints on Decorative

Printing. It was executed in rivalry with Nesbit, who engraved the cut

of Rinaldo and Armida for the same work, and it would be difficult to

decide which is the best. Both are good specimens of the styles of their

respective schools; and the subjects are well adapted to display the

peculiar excellence of the engravers. Had they exchanged subjects,

neither of the cuts would have been so well executed; but in this case

there call be little doubt that Nesbit would have engraved the figure

and the rocks in the Cave of Despair better than Branston would have

engraved the trees and the foliage in the cut of Rinaldo and Armida. The

cut on the previous page is a reduced copy of a portion of that of Mr.

Branston.

Mr. Branston, like many others, did not think highly of the cuts in

Bewick’s Fables; and feeling persuaded that he could produce something

better, he employed Mr. Thurston to make several designs, with the

intention of publishing a similar work. After a few of them had been

engraved, he gave up the thought of proceeding further with the work,

from a doubt of its success. Bewick’s work was already in the market;

and it was questionable if another of the same kind, appearing shortly

after, would meet with a sale adequate to defray the expense. The three

cuts in the opposite page were engraved by Mr. Branston for the proposed

work. The two first are respectively illustrations of the fables of

Industry and Sloth, and of the Two Crabs; the third was intended as a

tail-piece. The cut of Industry and Sloth is certainly superior to that

of the same subject in Bewick’s Fables; but that of the Two Crabs,

though more delicately engraved, is not equal to the cut of the same

subject in Bewick.

[Illustration:

INDUSTRY AND SLOTH.--_Robert Branston._]

[Illustration:

THE TWO CRABS.--_Robert Branston._]

[Illustration:

TAIL-PIECE TO THE TWO CRABS.--_Robert Branston._]

Mr. Branston also thought that Bewick’s Birds were estimated too highly;

and he engraved two or three cuts to show that he could do the same

things as well, or better. In this respect, however, he certainly formed

a wrong estimate of his abilities; for, it is extremely doubtful

if--even with the aid of the best designer he could find--he could have

executed twenty cuts of birds which, for natural character, would bear a

comparison with twenty of the worst engraved by Bewick himself. The

great North-country man was an artist as well as a wood engraver; and in

this respect his principal pupils have also been distinguished. The cut

on our present page is one of those engraved by Mr. Branston to show his

superiority over Bewick. The bird represented is probably the Grey

Phalarope, or Scallop-toed Sand-piper, and it is unquestionably executed

with considerable ability; but though Bewick’s cut of the same bird be

one of his worst, it is superior to that engraved by Mr. Branston in

every essential point.

[Illustration]

Between twenty and thirty years ago, a wood engraver named Austin

executed several cuts, but did nothing to promote the art. William

Hughes, a native of Liverpool, who died in February 1825, at the early

age of thirty-two, produced a number of wood engravings of very

considerable merit. He chiefly excelled in architectural subjects. One

of his best productions is a dedication cut in the first volume of

Johnson’s Typographia, 1824, showing the interior of a chapel,

surrounded by the arms of the members of the Roxburgh Club. Another

artist of the same period, named Hugh Hughes, of whom scarcely anything

is now known, executed a whole volume of singularly beautiful wood

engravings, entitled “The Beauties of Cambria, consisting of Sixty Views

in North and South Wales,” London, 1823. The work was published by

subscription at one guinea, or on India paper at two guineas, and was

beautifully printed by the same John Johnson who printed William Hughes’

cuts in the “Typographia,” and who, a few years previously, had

conducted the Lee Priory Press. The annexed four examples will give an

idea of the high finish and perfection of this elegant series.

[Illustration:

_Hugh Hughes, del. et sc._

PISTILL CAIN.]

[Illustration:

_Hugh Hughes, del. et sc._

MOLL FAMAU.]

[Illustration:

_Hugh Hughes, del. et sc._

WREXHAM CHURCH.]

[Illustration:

_Hugh Hughes, del. et sc._

PWLL CARADOC.]

[Illustration:

GROUP OF FISH.--_J. Thompson._]

John Thompson,[VII-89] one of the best English wood engravers of the

present day, was a pupil of Mr. Branston. He not only excels, like his

master, in the engraving of human figures, but displays equal talent in

the execution of all kinds of subjects. Among the very many excellent

cuts which have been engraved in England within the last twenty years,

those executed by John Thompson rank foremost. As he is rarely unequal

to himself, it is rather difficult to point out any which are very much

superior to the others of his execution. The following, however, may be

referred to as specimens of the general excellence of his cuts:--The

title-page to Puckle’s Club, 1817, and the cuts of Moroso, Newsmonger,

Swearer, Wiseman, and Xantippe in the same work; the Trout, the Tench,

the Salmon, the Chub, and a group of small fish,[VII-90] consisting of

the Minnow, the Loach, the Bull-head, and the Stickle-back, in Major’s

edition of Walton’s Angler;[VII-91] many of the cuts in Butler’s

Hudibras, published by Baldwyn in 1819, and reprinted by Bohn, in 1859,

of which we annex an example; the portrait of Butler, prefixed to an

edition of his Remains, published in 1827; and The Two Swine, The Mole

become a Connoisseur, Love and Friendship, and the portrait of

Northcote, in the second series of Northcote’s Fables. One of his latest

cuts is the beautifully executed portrait of Milton and his daughters,

after a design by Mr. Harvey, already given at page 531. The following

cut--a reduced copy of one of the plates in the Rake’s Progress--by Mr.

Thompson, engraved a few years ago for a projected edition of Hogarth’s

Graphic Works, of which only about a dozen cuts were completed, is one

of the best specimens of the art that has been executed in modern times.

In the engraving of small cuts of this kind Mr. Thompson has never been

surpassed; and it is beyond the power of the art to effect more than

what has here been accomplished.

[Footnote VII-89: Charles Thompson, the brother of John, is also a

wood engraver. He resides at Paris, and his cuts are better known

in France than in this country. Miss Eliza Thompson, a daughter of

John Thompson, also engraves on wood.]

[Footnote VII-90: The Salmon, Chub, and group of small fish are

given on the preceding page from the actual cuts referred to.]

[Footnote VII-91: Bewick was accustomed to speak highly of the

cuts of fish in this beautiful work (several of which are given on

the previous pages): the Salmon, engraved by J. Thompson, and the

Eel, by H. White, he especially admired. Among others scarcely

less excellent are the Pike, by R. Branston; and the Carp, the

Grayling, and the Ruffe, by H. White. Major, in his second

edition, went to great expense in substituting other engravings

for most of these, with the intention of surpassing all that, by

the aid of artists, he had done before--in which he to some extent

succeeded. In this second edition, the Salmon is engraved by John

Jackson. All Mr. Major’s wood-cuts, as well as many of Bewick’s,

having passed into the hands of Henry G. Bohn (the present

publisher), his edition of Walton’s Angler is extensively enriched

by them.]

[Illustration:

SALMON.--_J. Thompson._]

[Illustration:

CHUB.--_J. Thompson._]

[Illustration:

PIKE.--_R. Branston._]

[Illustration:

EEL.--_H. White._]

[Illustration:

_John Thompson._]

[Illustration]

The English wood engravers, who next to Charlton Nesbit and John

Thompson seem best entitled to honourable mention, are:--Samuel

Williams;* Thomas Williams; Ebenezer Landells; John Orrin Smith;* George

Baxter; Robert Branston; Frederick W. Branston; Henry White, senior, and

Henry White, junior; Thomas Mosses;* Charles Gorway; Samuel Slader;*

W. T. Green; W. J. Linton; John Martin; J. W. Whimper; John Wright;

W. A. Folkard; Charles Gray;* George Vasey; John Byfield;* John

Jackson;* Daniel Dodd, and John Dodd, brothers.--William Henry Powis,

who died in 1836, aged 28, was one of the best wood engravers of his

time. Several beautiful cuts executed by him are to be found in Martin

and Westall’s Pictorial Illustrations of the Bible, 1833, and in an

edition of Scott’s Bible, 1834; both works now published by Mr. Bohn.

The following examples, principally taken from Martin and Westall’s

Illustrations, will exemplify the talents of a few of the distinguished

artists above mentioned. It would swell the book beyond its limits to

give more, otherwise we might select from the same work, which contains

one hundred and forty engravings, by all the principal wood engravers of

the day.

[Footnote *: All the engravers to whose names an asterisk is added

are now deceased.]

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   JOHN JACKSON]

The above cut was engraved by Mr. John Jackson in 1833. Abundant

evidences of the versatility of his xylographic talent, are scattered

throughout the present volume, of which, though not the author in a

literary sense, he was at least the conductor and proprietor. Among the

subjects pointed out by Mr. Chatto as engraved by Mr. Jackson, those on

pages 473, 495, 496, 512, 605, 614, deserve to be mentioned.

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   F. W. BRANSTON]

Mr. F. W. Branston, brother of Mr. Robert Branston, has long been known

as one of our best engravers, as the annexed Specimen will shew.

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   E. LANDELLS]

MR. EBENEZER LANDELLS, the engraver of this beautiful cut, has quite

recently been lost to us. He was projector, and for a long time

proprietor, of The Ladies’ Illustrated Newspaper, and has engraved an

immense number of subjects of all classes.

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   W. H. POWIS]

The talented engraver of the present subject has already been named,

with commendation, at page 544. We learn that the sum paid him for

engraving it was fifteen guineas, being three guineas more than the

average price. Mr. Wm. Bagg, now a successful draftsman of anatomical

subjects, made this and all the other drawings on the blocks at the rate

of five guineas each, and Mr. John Martin had ten guineas each for the

designs. As the volume contains 144 subjects it must have cost the

projectors, Messrs. Bull and Churton, upwards of four thousand guineas:

it may now be bought for a dozen shillings.

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   THOS. WILLIAMS]

MR. THOMAS WILLIAMS ranks high as an engraver on wood, and the

illustrated works of the last twenty years teem with his performances.

Some of the engravings in the Merrie Days of England, 1859, are by him.

[Illustration:

JOHN MARTIN   W. T. GREEN]

The only other Illustration which we shall take from Martin and

Westall’s Bible Prints is the above, engraved by Mr. W. T. Green, who

continues to exercise his burin with great skill, and has recently

engraved one of the plates in Merrie Days of England, and Favourite

English Poems, and several of Maclise’s designs for Tennyson’s Princess.

To this is added, as a vignette finish to the chapter, an engraving

recently executed by him for an illustrated edition of Milton’s Paradise

Lost, now published in Bohn’s Library, and already mentioned at page

531.

One of the principal wood engravers in Germany, about the time that

Bewick began to practise the art in England, was Unger. In 1779 he

published a tract, containing five cuts of his own engraving, discussing

the question whether Albert Durer actually engraved on wood: his

decision is in the negative. In the same year, his son also published a

dissertation, illustrated with wood-cuts, on the progress of wood

engraving in Brandenburg, with an account of the principal books

containing wood-cuts printed in that part of Prussia. They jointly

executed some chiaro-scuros, and a number of trifling book-illustrations

such as are to be found in Heineken’s Idée Générale d’une Collection

complette d’Estampes. These cuts are of a very inferior character.

Gubitz, a German wood engraver, who flourished about thirty years ago,

executed several cuts which are much superior to any I have seen by the

Ungers. Several of those engraved by Gubitz, bear considerable

resemblance to the cuts of Bewick. The principal French wood engravers

in the eighteenth century, subsequent to Papillon, were Gritner and

Beugnet; but neither of them produced anything superior to the worst of

the cuts to be found in the work of Papillon. With them wood engraving

in France rather declined than advanced. Of late years the art has made

great progress both in Germany and France; and should the taste for

wood-cuts continue to increase in those countries, their engravers may

regain for the art that popularity which it enjoyed in former times,

when Nuremberg and Lyons were the great marts for works illustrated with

wood engravings.

[Illustration:

W. HARVEY   W. T. GREEN]