d for these prints because of the generally large size of
the pictures and the lack of sophistication of the audience. They are
described by Bewick from his memories as a boy in the 1760's:[16]

I cannot, however, help lamenting that, in all the vicissitudes
which the art of wood engraving has undergone, some species of it
are lost and done away: I mean the large blocks with the prints from
them, so common to be seen, when I was a boy, in every cottage and
farm house throughout the country. These blocks, I suppose, from
their size, must have been cut on the plank way on beech, or some
other kind of close-grained wood; and from the immense number of
impressions from them, so cheaply and extensively spread over the
whole country, must have given employment to a great number of
artists, in this inferior department of woodcutting.... These
prints, which were sold at a very low price, were commonly
illustrative of some memorable exploits, or were, perhaps, the
portraits of eminent men.... Besides these, there were a great
variety of other designs, often with songs added to them of a moral,
a patriotic, or a rural tendency, which served to enliven the circle
in which they were admired. To enumerate the great variety of these
_pictures_ would be a task.

[Footnote 16: Bewick, 1925 (1st ed. London, 1862), pp. 211-212.]

Bewick adds that some of these popular woodcuts, although not the great
majority, were very good. Since this was the main field for woodcutters,
it is an interesting conjecture that Jackson might have been trained for
this craft. As he matured, we can assume that he felt the urge to excel
as a woodcutter and left the country to develop his potentialities.

It must be remembered that in painting and engraving England was far
behind the continental countries, which could boast of centuries of
celebrated masters. The medieval period persisted in England until the
time of Henry VIII. Traditional religious subjects, so indispensable to
European art, were thereafter generally proscribed. There was no
fondness as yet for themes of classical mythology, and the new and
developing national tradition in painting had to form itself on the only
remaining field of pictorial expression, portraiture. Standards of style
were set by foreign artists who were lured to England to record its
prominent personages in a fitting manner. Beside such masters as
Holbein, Zuccaro, Moro, Geeraerts, Van