Life^ Genius^ arid Personal Habits of Bewick. 4>2^ 



filled with one layer of finished blocks, with their faces up- 

 ward, on many of whose maiden lineaments, fresh and sharp 

 from the graver, the ink-ball had never been pressed. They 

 are all cut on box-wood, which is procured from abroad of as 

 large circumference as possible, at a great expense, and is 

 paid for by weight. This is sawn across, at right angles to 

 the cylindrical growth of the tree (I mean as a cucumber is 

 sliced), in pieces, when finished, exactly the thickness of the 

 height of the metallic types, with which the blocks are after- 

 wards incorporated in the pressman's Jbrm, or iron frame. 

 Gne surface of this block is made extremely smooth, on 

 which is traced in black and white lines, the figure or design ; 

 the white is then cut out, and the black left. Though this 

 was the method he took with his pupils, of whom he had 

 constantly a numerous succession, he had early acquired so 

 ready a facility himself, that simply with the graver on little, 

 and often no, outline, he worked the design on the blank 

 block at once. His tools, many of his own contrivance and 

 making, were various in sizes and sorts. Some, broad gouges 

 for wide excavation ; some narrow, for fine white lines ; and 

 some many-pointed for parallels, which, either straight or 

 wavy, he cut with rapidity, by catching the first tooth of the 

 tool in the last stroke, which guided it equidistant with the 

 former. He spoke with great approbation of the graphic 

 talents of his late brother John ; and repeatedly said, that, had 

 he lived, he might have attained to greater eminence than 

 himself. When they both began, the art was almost lost, 

 and totally neglected; but has, through his hands and inge- 

 nuity, been almost, as it were, re-invented, and brought to its 

 present high pitch of perfection : and many of the most cele- 

 brated wood-engravers have been his pupils. Here he gave 

 us his opinion of the old method of cross-hatching, a style 

 not now used, or even known, and, he said, useless; as every 

 effect may be produced by parallel lines, broader or narrower, 

 at greater or less distances; and in the lighter parts, by a little 

 sinking of the surface of the block. The latter is one of hk 

 own inventions, and by it a judicious pressman can produce 

 every gradation of shade from very black to nearly white ; 

 between which he preferred those of intermediate strength," 

 being decidedly against a black impression. He thought the 

 old engravers effected the cross-hatching, either by covering 

 the block or metal plate with wax, through which the lines 

 were cut, and an acid then applied to eat into the surface ; or 

 by the use of cross or double blocks, requiring two impres- 

 sions to produce a single figure. Numberless specimens of 

 this cross-hatching may be found in the great old edition of 



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