Notice of British Naluralisis. 159 



affluence, and moved in a humble although respectable station of 

 live. At an early age he was sent to a dame's schoolj and lie af- 

 terwards completed his English education under a better mstruc- 

 tor. Here he strongly manifested his love for the picturesque, 

 and his taste for drawing- So evident^ indeed; were those traits 

 of charactcrj that his father was induced to bind him, at the age 

 of fourteen, an apprentice to a copper-plate engraver, at Newcastle 

 upon Tyne. Of this part of his life nothing particular is knowU; 

 except his dislike to his business, which was chiefly the coarse 

 and dirty work of cutting brass dial-faces for clocks; but he ap- 

 pears to have worked industriously, and to have been steady and 

 diligent in his habits. In 1770 he first proved his talents for 

 wood-engraving, while his employer was engaged in executing 

 the cuts for HuUon^s Mensuration. The mathematical dia- 

 grams requiring greater correctness than could be attained by the 

 use of the ordinary chisel, he invented a double-edged instrument 

 which answered every purpose in making a very fine and straight 

 line. His attention once turned in this direction, he made rapid 

 progress. Till 1787 he was employed in illustrating some vol- 

 umes of fables^ and other small books; and, as in such works, 

 birds and animals were the frequent subjects of his graver, he ac- 

 quired an excellent accuracy in their delineation. By degrees he 

 improved. With this progress he made new experiments and in- 

 ventions, and with the growing facility of execution, his mind 

 was daily more fixed upon his subject. 



In 1786 he was married ; and in 1789 he published his cele- 

 brated print of the Chilhngham wild Bull, the largest and most 

 highly finished wood engraving which he ever executed. 



In 1790 he published, as we have said, his work on quadrupeds ; 

 and in 1797, after nearly six years of constant labor, the first vol- 

 ume of his 'British JS/r^is'^appeared- After the lapse of nearly 

 a similar period, in 1S04, the second volume, that on water birds, 

 was presented to the public — the whole term proving, if any proof 

 were w^anting, his great perseverance, and that the work was not 

 hastily nor crudely executed. The book went through six edi- 

 tions before 1826. The W '"" ~ 

 we have already made mention, 



popu 



proposed 



perceiving Bewick's great abilities as 



the facilities of which he afterwards made use. While this gen- 



tleman lived he was the constant and liberal patron of Bewick. 



