MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 255 



began to be unfolded to my view; and the more I 

 have since thought upon the subject, the more I 

 am confirmed in the opinions I have entertained, 

 that the use of wood cuts will know no end, 

 or, so long as the importance of printing is 

 duly appreciated and the liberty of the press held 

 sacred. 



The first difficulty I felt, as I proceeded, was in 

 getting the cuts I had executed printed so as to 

 look anything like my drawings on the blocks of 

 wood, or corresponding to the labour I had be- 

 stowed upon the cutting of the designs. At that 

 time pressmen were utterly ignorant as to any 

 proper effect that was to be produced; or even, if 

 one of them possessed any notions of excellence 

 beyond the common run of workmen, his materials 

 for working were so defective that he could not 

 execute even what he himself wished to accomplish. 

 The common pelt balls then in use, so daubed the 

 cut, and blurred and overlapped its edges, that the 

 impression looked disgusting. To remedy this 

 defect, I was obliged carefully to shave down the 

 edges round about; and this answered the end I 

 had in view. The next difficulty was worse to 

 surmount, and required a long time to get over it; 

 and that was, to lower down the surface on all the 

 parts I wished to appear pale,* so as to give the 

 appearance of the required distance; and this 

 process will always continue to call forth and to 

 exercise the judgment of every wood engraver, 



[* Miss Bewick (vide note to "Preface" of 1862, in the present 

 volume) thought that this practice of lowering was peculiar to 

 her father. But it seems to have been well known to some of 

 the earlier engravers, including the unknown artist of Croxall's 

 popular "Fables of ^sop and Others," 1722.] 



