226 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



Congreve's method was borrowed from him. " Mr. Bewick is indeed too 

 good an artist," says Branston, " and too candid a man, after taking credit for 

 the security of surface printing in one colour, which was his own proposition, 

 not to admit it when combined with the additional difficulties arising from the 

 perfect register of colour in the compound plate, which is the essence of Sir 

 W. Congreve's plan." * 



Bewick requested Congreve to say if the scheme were his own or Bewick's, 

 but, as our engraver says in his Memoir, " neither Sir William nor any of the 

 commissioners took any notice," excepting Branston's letter, which, " though 

 it began very impudently, did not answer my letter at all. This I could not 

 help treating with contempt; to enter into a paper war with such a person," 

 Bewick continues, "I thought would be great folly." So, notwithstanding 

 all his trouble, he did not gain anything by his exertions, and the project 

 dropped. It must be admitted, however, that Bewick's plan was not nearly 

 so complete for the prevention of forgery as that of Sir William Congreve, 

 though Bewick's artistic skill and ingenuity displayed in the note engravings 

 were very conspicuous. 



The works published from 1813 to 1820 with new engravings by Bewick 

 were not large in number, but are in several cases important publications. 

 The "Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith," Alnwick, 1812, contain two 

 vignettes in the body of the volume, and the block (printed here at p. 211) 

 of Edwin and Angelina, from the Hermit, employed as a frontispiece. It has 

 no very great merit beyond other contemporary work by Bewick. Marshall's 

 " Epistles in Verse," 181 2, contain a collection of woodcuts, each of which fills 

 the quarto page. There are examples by Clennell, Nesbit, and others, and one 

 by Bewick. The " Poetical Works of Robert Ferguson," Alnwick, 2 vols. 1814, 

 contain in the first volume over twenty engravings, but, with the exception 



* Bewick's notes were in one colour only, Congreve's in two or three. Branston promised in his letter to 

 produce further evidence of Congreve's method, but does not appear to have done so. 



