son, _op. cit._ (footnote 8), p. 56.

Even in the _Select fables of Aesop and others_ of 1784, when Bewick's
special gifts began to emerge, the cuts on laid paper appeared weak in
comparison with his later work. Bewick was still using wood engraving as
a cheaper, more quickly executed substitute for the woodcut. The designs
were based upon Croxall's edition of _Aesop's Fables_, published in
1722, which was probably the best and most popular illustrated book
published in England during the century up to Bewick's time. According
to Chatto, the cuts were made with the burin on end-grain wood, probably
by Kirkall,[22] but Bewick believed they were engraved on type
metal.[23] It was not easy to tell the difference. Type metal usually
made grayer impressions than wood and sometimes, but not always,
nail-head marks appeared where the metal was fastened to the wood base.
The Croxall cuts, in turn, were adapted with little change from
17th-century sources--etchings by Francis Barlow and line engravings by
Sebastian Le Clerc. Bewick's cuts repeated the earlier designs but
changed the locale to the English countryside of the late 18th century.
This was to be expected; to have a contemporary meaning the actors of
the old morality play had to appear in modern dress and with up-to-date
scenery. But technically the cuts followed the pattern of Croxall's wood
engraver, although with a slightly greater range of tone. Artistically
Bewick's interpretation was inferior because it was more literal; it
lacked the grander feeling of the earlier work.

Bewick really became the prophet of a new pictorial style in his _A
general history of quadrupeds_, published in 1790 on wove paper (see
figs. 8, 9, and 10). Here his animals and little vignetted tailpieces of
observations in the country announced an original subject for
illustration and a fresh treatment of wood engraving, although some
designs were still copied from earlier models. The white line begins to
function with greater elasticity; tones and details beyond anything
known previously in the medium appear with the force of innovation. The
paper was still somewhat coarse and the cuts were often gray and muddy.
But the audacity of the artist in venturing tonal subtleties was
immediately apparent.

[22] Chatto, _op. cit._ (footnote 6), p. 448.

[23] Thomas Bewick, _Fables of Aesop and others_, Newcastle, 1818.

One of Bewick's old friends at Newcastle had been William Bulmer, who by
the