MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK, 55 



self. When they both began, the art was almost 

 lost, and totally neglected; but has, through his 

 hands and ingenuity, been almost, as it were, re- 

 invented, and brought to its present high pitch o 

 perfection : and many of the most celebrated 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 pa- 

 rallel lines, broader or narrower, at greater or less 

 distances ; and in the lighter parts, by a little sink- 

 ing of the surface of the block. The latter is one 

 of his own inventions, and by it a judicious press- 

 man can produce every gradation of shade from 

 very black to nearly white; between which he 

 preferred those of intermediate strength, being de 

 cidedly 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 impressions 

 to produce a single figure. Numberless specimens 

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

 edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs, where it is often 

 widely and wantonly thrown away, even where not 

 required ; a proof, that it must have been executed 

 without much art or labour : in honest old Gerard's 



* This is a mistake ; Bewick must have meant that the 

 lines representative of the figure were painted or hatched, 

 with any bituminous substance, and the interstices eat down 

 by acids. 



