Beilby. Bewick with his taste for rural scenery and
enjoyments and the observation of nature, doubtless found little to
interest him in London; nor even after he had obtained his highest
celebrity, did he ever again think of establishing himself in the
metropolis. He spent the remainder of his life in his native district.
At the time of Bewick's first entering into active life, the art of
wood-engraving had fallen into the lowest repute. Few of its specimens
were superior to the pictures on street ballads of the present day. To
explain Bewick's improvements would occupy too much of our space, but, we
may observe, generally that the engravings of the above period were mere
patches of black and white, till Bewick introduced those beautiful reliefs,
or varieties of light and shade which principally form the pictorial
effect of an engraving. By this means he raised wood-engraving from a
state of contempt to the rank of one of the _fine arts_.
The first specimen of his talents by which Bewick made himself publicly
known was a cut of an old hound, for which, in 1755, he received a premium
from the Society of Arts.
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