ock had been cut for an edition of Gay's
fables; the complete work appeared in 1779; and immediately attracted
general attention by the striking superiority of its embellishments, which
were all from wood-cuts executed by Bewick and his younger brother John,
who, when Beilby and he entered into partnership, had become their
apprentice. From this time the reputation of the artist went on increasing
steadily, and he produced a succession of works which very soon gave
altogether a new character to his art itself.

Bewick's principal work, or that which established his fame, was his
_History of Quadrupeds_, which appeared in 1790. He had been employed many
years in preparing this publication, all the cuts in which were not only
engraved by himself or his brother, but were all copied from his own
drawings. He had cultivated his early talent for the delineation of
animals with unwearied industry: he had not the advantages of academical
studies, which education in the metropolis might have afforded him, but
_he drew from life_, taking sketches of all the striking specimens that
came under his notice, and visiting whatever menageries of exotic animals
were brought to Newcastle.[2] Thus he studied assiduously _from nature_,
and to this course may be attributed the excellence of the cuts in the
_History of Quadrupeds_. Many of the vignettes also, with which this
publication was adorned, had uncommon merit as original sketches; for
Bewick did not confine his pencil to the mere delineation of animals. His
vignettes have been said to partake of his determinate propensity to
morality, tenderness, and humour; each telling articulately its own
tale.[3] and bearing in every line a lesson.

A catalogue of Bewick's various works will not be expected in this brief
sketch. He did not confine himself to animal engraving; for in the years
1795 and 1796, were published by Mr. Bulmer, of Newcastle, the _Traveller_
and the _Deserted Village_, by Goldsmith; Parnell's _Hermit_; and
Somerville's _Clara_; with cuts by Bewick. In 1797, appeared the first
volume of his _History of British Birds_: in 1818, he completed his first
volume of _Fables of Aesop_ and others. In 1820, Mr. Charnley, of
Newcastle, published a volume of Fables, as a vehicle for the impressions
of the earlier blocks, both of head-pieces and vignettes, engraved by
Bewick when very young, all previous to the year 1785, and for various
publications. This collection amounted to upward