MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 
29 
man, to conceive the desire of giving to the world a 
complete specimen of the improved arts of type and 
block -printing ; and for this purpose he engaged the 
Messrs Bewicks, two of his earliest acquaintances, 
to engrave a set of cuts to embellish the poems of 
Goldsmith, The Traveller and Deserted Village, 
and Parnell's Hermit. These appeared in 1795, in 
a royal quarto volume, and attracted a great share of 
public attention, from the beauty of the printing and 
the novelty of the embellishments, which were exe- 
cuted with the greatest care and skill, after designs 
made from the most interesting passages of the 
poems, and were universally allowed to exceed every 
thing of the kind that had been produced before. 
Indeed, it was conceived almost impossible that such 
delicate effects could be obtained from blocks of 
wood : and it is said that his late Majesty (George 
III.) entertained so great a doubt upon the subject, 
that he ordered his bookseller, Mr G. Nicol, to pro- 
cure the blocks from Mr Bulmer, that he might con- 
vince himself of the fact. 
The success of this volume induced Mr Bulmer 
to print, in the same way, Somerville's Chase. The 
subjects which ornament this work being entirely 
composed of landscape scenery and animals, were 
peculiarly adapted to display the beauties of wood- 
