Sect. III.] Engraving. 145 



dom resorted to. No further improvement seems 

 to have been attempted till near the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, when some experiments were 

 made by French artists, with Copperplates, with a 

 view to obtain coloured prints. They also found 

 it necessary to use different plates for different 

 parts of the work; and on this, as well as other 

 accounts, the expense of their plan prevented its 

 general adoption. But toward the close of the 

 century a method was invented of producing an 

 elegant coloured engraving from a single copi)er- 

 plate. ^ The English artists are said to have car- 

 ried this improvement to the greatest degree of 

 excellence. 



A method of engraving is said to have been 

 lately invented by Ui\ Westall, an artist of Lon- 

 don, more nearly resembling Draxiings than was 

 before known. In 1799 he exhibited a drawing, 

 and the year following a print taken from it, 

 which was so close an imitation as ta ''devcive the 

 eye. :: :i 



The art of Engraving on wood hdid been prac 

 tised in great perfection for several centuries before 

 the eighteenth, but degenerated, and became little 

 used. At the close of the seventeenth century it 

 was in a very low state ; and it had almost sunk into 

 forgetful n ess, when Thomas Bewick, of Newcastle, 

 a ^Q\v years ago, revived it. He is said by some, in- 

 deed, to be entitled to the honour of reinventnig 

 the art; and has certainly brought it to a degree 

 of elegance and perfection unknown to the later 

 engravers. His pupils, Nesbit and Anderson, 

 also have been for a considerable time distin- 

 Vol. ir. L 



