MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 55 
self. When they hoth began, the art was almost 
lost, and totally neglected; but has, through his 
hands and ingenuity, been almost, as it were, re- 
invented, and brought to its present high pitch o 
perfection : and many of the most celebrated wood- 
engravers have been his pupils. Here he gave us 
his opinion of the old method of cross-hatching, a 
style not now used, or even known, and he said 
useless ; as every effect may be produced by pa- 
rallel lines, broader or narrower, at greater or less 
distances ; and in the lighter parts, by a little sink- 
ing of the surface of the block. The latter is one 
of his own inventions, and by it a judicious press- 
man can produce every gradation of shade from 
very black to nearly white; between which he 
preferred those of intermediate strength, being de ■ 
cidedly against a black impression. He thought 
the old engravers effected the cross-hatching, either 
by covering the block or metal plate with wax, 
through which the lines were cut*, and an acid then 
applied to eat into the surface ; or by the use of 
cross or double blocks, requiring two impressions 
to produce a single figure. Numberless specimens 
of this cross-hatching may be found in the great old 
edition of Fox’s Book of Martyrs , where it is often 
widely and wantonly thrown away, even where not 
required ; a proof, that it must have been executed 
without much art or labour : in honest old Gerard’s 
* ThiB is a mistake ; Bewick must have meant that the 
lines representative of the figure were painted or hatched 
with any bituminous substance, and the interstices eat down 
by acids. 
