APPENDIX. 359 



PRINTS BY MEANS OF A SERIES OF 

 WOOD BLOCKS. 



THE Author, at page 266 of this Memoir, in 

 stating what he believes may be done by the 

 printing of large wood-cuts from two or more 

 blocks, so as to rival the landscapes of William 

 Woollett on copper, intimates his intention of 

 making the attempt, to show that it is not a 

 visionary theory. With this view, he executed 

 a large wood-cut, the subject being an old horse 

 "waiting for death." A first proof was taken a 

 few days before his death. An impression at the 

 same time was transferred to a second block, the 

 exact size of the first, and was intended to have 

 been engraved to heighten and improve the effect 

 of the print ; and a third was prepared to be 

 used if necessary. A few impressions of the first 

 of the series were printed in London in 1832, 

 and were accompanied by a descriptive history 

 of the horse, written so far back as 1785.* The 

 print (in a finished state) was intended to have 



[* The issue of 1832, printed for R. E. Bewick by Vizetelly and 

 Branston, bore the inscription "Waiting for Death : Bewick's Last 

 Work, left unfinished, and intended to have been completed by a 

 Series of Impressions from Separate Blocks printed over each other " 

 In recent years "Waiting for Death" has been republished on parch- 

 ment and paper for Mr. Robert Robinson, of Pilgrim Street, Newcastle, 

 who has also included it (by permission of the present owner of the 

 block, Thomas Gow, Esq., of Cambo, Northumberland) in his "Thomas 

 Bewick : His Life and Times," 1887.] 



