CHAPTER XXII. 



Having already noticed my beginnings, or first 

 efforts, in engraving on wood;* and as at that time 

 this department of the arts was at the very lowest 

 ebb in this country, and, I believe, also in every 

 other country in Europe, it may perhaps be of 

 some use, or at least may excite some curiosity, 

 to know the part I took in renewing, or bringing 

 into use, this to me new art, as far as I was able, 

 with the slender means in my hands, and the many 

 difficulties I had to contend with and surmount, 

 before anything like an approach towards perfec- 

 tion could be arrived at. I ought first distinctly 

 to state that, at that time, it never entered into 

 my head that it was a branch of art that would 

 stand pre-eminent for utility, or that it could ever 

 in the least compete with engraving on copper. 

 I ought also to observe that no vain notions of 

 my arriving at any eminence ever passed through 

 my mind, and that the sole stimulant with me 

 was the pleasure I derived from imitating natural 

 objects (and I had no other patterns to go by), and 

 the opportunity it afforded me of making and 

 drawing my designs on the wood, as the only way 

 I had in my power of giving vent to a strong 

 propensity to gratify my feelings in this way. In 

 process of time, however, as I began to improve, 

 and seeing the practical use printers were making 

 of wood cuts, the utility and importance of them 



* Vide Chapter iv. 



