56 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 
valuable Herbal: in that of Parkinson : and in 
Felix Yalgrise’s beautiful folio edition of Matthiolus’ 
Commentaries on Dioscoricles, Venice, 1583 : and 
many other ancient books in my collection. Mr. 
Bewick’s own Horse-traveller in a Storm, where he 
shows black and white rain, is a specimen of the 
use of two blocks. A person acquainted only with 
the common method would be at a loss to conceive 
how the union of the absolutely opposite styles of 
engraving, on copper and wood, could be effected. 
The black diagonal lines, particularly those on the 
foreground, constitute its great curiosity as a wood- 
cut. In many of his tail-pieces, he has given imi- 
tations of etching, and cross-hatching ; but these 
are all worked in the usual manner, the surface of 
the wood being picked out, with infinite labour and 
surprising skill, from between the lines. He very 
seldom engraved from any other copy than nature, 
having the bird (always alive if possible), or other 
subject, before him, and sketching the outline on 
the block, filling up the foregrounds, landscapes, 
and light foliage of trees, at once with the tool 
without being previously pencilled. It was curious 
to observe his eeonomy of box-wood ; the pieces 
being circular, lie divided them according to the 
size of his design, so as to lose little or none ; and 
should there be a flaw, or decayed spot, he con- 
trived to bring that into a part of the drawing 
that was to be left white, and so cut out. He 
said, blocks, in durability of lines, incalculably out- 
lasted engravings on copper, which wear very much 
