Mr. Atkinson^ Sketch of the late T. Bewick. 141 



On the Saturday previous to his death, he took the first block, to 

 Walker's, and had four impressions struck, which are now distributed 

 among the four members of his family. One of them had been applied, 

 as above mentioned, to a second block, which bears the impression in- 

 tended to direct the artist in the distribution of his shading. 



He could not, I remember, please himself with the eye for his old 

 horse, and after filling several scraps of paper with old eyes, which would 

 have delighted most people, declared he must wait to copy one from 

 nature.* 



The first edition of the Land Birds, which constitute volume i. of 

 Bewick's British Birds, was printed by Hodgson, in 1797j and the first 

 of the Water Birds, vol. ii , by E. Walker, in 1804. The first volume, 

 consisting of 3S5 pages, at 105. Qd. demi, 135. thin royal, 155. thick 

 royal, and £1. Is. imperial octavo; the second volume, consisting of 

 four hundred pages, 125. demi, 155. thin royal, 185. thick royal ; and £1 

 45. imperial. One thousand copies were taken off on the first kind of 

 paper, eight hundred and fifty on the second and third, and twenty-four 

 on the last. 



In 1798, an additional number were taken, bearing date 1797? hut 

 printed in 1798, seven hundred and fifty on demi, at 105. 6d. for the 

 first, and 125. the second volume ; six hundred and sixty-nine on royal, 

 at 155. and 185., and two hundred and seven on imperial octavo, at £1. 

 l5. and £1. 45. 



Of the second edition of the two volumes published together by 

 Walker, in 1805, I am unable to state the number of copies taken ; and 

 of the third edition, printed by Walker, in 1809, and the fourth, in 

 1816, I know nothing, but that the latter contains, in its first volume, 

 329j and in the second, 400 pages. 



* This application of several blocks is termed Chiar'oscuro ; it is of very early invention, 

 being mentioned among the first records of the art. It is claimed by the Italians for Ugo 

 DA Carpi, born at Rome, in 1486 ; and by the Germans, with much shew of reason, for 

 Mair, who practised it in 1499 (while Ugo da Carpi was a boy), and for Lucas Cra- 

 NACH in 1500. It should be remarked, however, that the method employed by the Ger-, 

 man and Italian masters was so different, as to allow both a fair claim for originality of in- 

 vention. Papillon (Histoire de la Gravure en BoisJ gives a specimen in page 154, vol 

 ii., where the four impressions are separately represented. 



VOL. I. V 



