as purely
accidental. He was in the habit of exercising his genius by covering the
walls and doors of the houses in his native village with his sketches in
chalk. Some of these performances one day chanced to attract the attention
of a Mr. Beilby, a copper-plate engraver of Newcastle, as he was passing
through Cherryburn; and he was so much struck with the talent they
displayed that he sought out the young artist, and obtained his father's
consent to take him with him to be his apprentice. This was in the year
1767. In the following year Bewick executed his first wood-cut for Dr.
Button's Treatise on Navigation, the diagrams for which work were, at the
suggestion of Mr. Beilby, engraved on wood, and printed with the
letter-press, instead of being on copper and stitched in with the sheets.
Bewick executed the whole of the cuts for Dr. Button's work with so much
accuracy, and a finish so greatly beyond what had usually been attained in
that species of work, that Mr. Beilby advised him to give his chief
attention henceforward to wood-engraving, and make it his profession. He
did so during the remainder of his apprenticeship, at the expiration of
which he repaired to London, and obtained employment in his trade. He soon
returned to the country, and in 1777 he entered into partnership with his
former master, Mr. 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. The bl