OUR WOOD ENGRAVERS. 497 



claim to be considered as artists, is very limited ; but even of these, 

 four-fifths, including the most eminent, are unknown even by name 

 to gentlemen of the press. If one of them happen to be mentioned, he 

 is invariably praised for that quality in which he knows himself most 

 wanting, or abused on those especial points in which he is gene- 

 rally admitted to excel the most talented of his competitors. As to 

 the comparative merits of such few of the wood-engravers as have 

 been lugged before the public for exposure by name, the most laugh- 

 able ignorance prevails. In an essay on the subject, published some 

 months since, Sam Slader was placed at the head of the list! Be- 

 wick's cart-load of laurels were transferred most ruthlessly to the 

 young Quaker's brow ; and poor Sam, conscious of the absurdity, 

 had nearly sunk under the good-natured infliction : Sears, Walker, 

 and Dorrington, were elevated above Thompson: of Nesbit, the 

 writer made no mention : Sam Williams, he said, might,, perhaps, 

 emerge from the back ground, and William Harvey was " really 

 rather a promising young man." 



We do not expect that our readers, misled and kept in the dark as 

 they have been by the ignorance of the critics, will see any prima 

 facie absurdity in this ; and yet, we assure them, the statements are 

 quite as ridiculous as the following parody on the passage, in which 

 the names of authors are substituted for those of the artists who are 

 mentioned : " The laurels of Byron now grace the brows of Mrs. 

 Cornwall Baron Wilson ; Campbell is far beneath S. S. Edgar, and 

 A Constant Reader : Banim may perhaps emerge from the back- 

 ground ; and Thomas Moore is really a promising young man." 



Within the past month, the most respectable portion of the press 

 have perpetrated errors, in reviewing Northcote's fables, equally 

 gross. A paper of high pretensions, and displaying an admirable de- 

 gree of talent, not only on general topics, but even on art, has very 

 recently, in noticing the work which gave rise to the present article, 

 attributed the whole of the designs to Northcote and the whole of the 

 engravings to Harvey ! What claim Northcote has to any of the de- 

 signs and the foolish old man himself would never have thought of 

 laying claim to more than a third of them we shall presently shew ; 

 but, just now, we will merely observe that Harvey did not engrave one 

 of them ! (as the critic might have ascertained, had he used his eyes, 

 from the book itself) nay more, that Harvey has neither engraved or 

 professed to have engraved a single block for many years past ; he 

 has had more lofty occupation, more profitable employment. 



A slight glance at the nature, rise, and progress of the art in our 

 own times, and the ability of its more eminent professors, will not 

 perhaps, after what we have said, prove unacceptable. An engraving 

 on wood differs very materially from one on copper or steel ; in the 

 latter, all the lines which appear in the impression are sunk ; in the 

 former they are raised, or rather the original surface is cut away, so 

 as to leave them standing above the bulk of the block. To print 

 from a copper or steel plate, the entire face of the metal is covered 

 with ink ; this is carefully wiped from the surface but left in the 

 lines, from which it is transferred to damp soft paper, so as to pro- 

 duce a perfect impression, bv passing the plate and paper together, 



M.M.No.89. 3K 



