We now reach a period to which Bewick himself thus refers at pages 59, 60 of his "Memoirs" (Longman, 1862):-"We were occasionally applied to by (local) printers to execute woodcuts for them. . . . Orders were received for cuts for Children's Books, chiefly for Thomas Saint, printer, Newcastle, and successor of John White, who had rendered himself famous for his numerous publications of histories and old ballads. . . . My time now became greatly taken up with designing and cutting a set of wood blocks for the 'Story-Teller,' 'Gay's Fables,' and 'Select Fables,' together with cuts of a similar kind for printers."

The following is among those referred to by Bewick:-"Youth's Instructive and Entertaining Story-Teller, being a Choice Collection of Moral Tales, Chiefly deduced from real Life, calculated to enforce the Practice of Virtue, and expand every social Idea in the Human heart. Adorned with emblematical cuts from the most interesting part of

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each Tale, and methodised after the Plan recommended by the late ingenious Dr. Goldsmith. Το which is added, by way of Preface, Thoughts on the Present Mode of Education." (Newcastle, T. Saint.) Three Editions, about 1774-7-8, 12mo, thirty-seven woodcuts. The cuts in this book are larger than any in the preceding books. We give the cut at page 48

of a Shipwrecked Sailor kneeling on a rock saying his prayers, the tide rising around him; which is the first and earliest engraving of this subject by T. Bewick, afterwards one of his favourite Vignettes in the "British Birds." The other cuts in the "Story Teller" are all about the size of those in "Gay's Fables," 1779, or "Select Fables," 1784, and have similar borders. Jackson refers to each of these three works. The two last named will now be noticed. "Gay's Fables." Fables by the late Mr. Gay, in One Volume complete, Newcastle, printed by and for T. Saint, 1779, 12mo, 77 cuts of Fables with borders and 33 Vignettes; for the tasteful and

clever engraving of five of the cuts (one, the Huntsman and Old Hound *) the Royal Society of Arts presented Bewick with their medal; it is further embellished with a beautifully engraved Frontispiece, by R. Beilby (T. Saint, Newcastle, 1779). We give on

page xx. an impression from an admirable electrotype of the original prize engraving. This cut is very interesting, as marking a period in Bewick's history when he had attained sufficient skill and confidence in his own powers to produce the engravings for the "Select Fables," T. Saint, 1784. In three parts. Part I. Fables extracted from Dodsley's; Part II. Fables, with reflections in Prose and Verse; Part III. Fables in Verse; to which are prefixed the Life of Æsop, and an Essay upon Fable. A New Edition Improved. For this edition a new set of cuts was * An impression is given in "Jackson," at page 477 (Edition 1861, Bohn). See also next page.

engraved by Thomas Bewick. "These cuts were then deemed superior to any of Bewick's previous productions." The same year another impression of this work was printed with the same titlepage, but considerable variations in the letterpress, and vignettes occur at pages 122, 125, and 152, which are not in the former edition, printed in 1784, 12mo.

This is the book, a reprint of which, with the original. woodcuts, is here presented. An original copy of the

* An early Trade List of Hall and Elliot's, successors of Thomas Saint of Newcastle (Bewick's first Publisher), describes the cuts in his "Select Fables," as being "done in his best manner." And Mr. R. Robinson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a recent pamphlet, states a fact "which," he says, cannot but be interesting to all Bewick Collectors," namely, "In the same list (one of Hall and Elliot's), we find "Gay's Fables," published in 1779; (and) the "Select Fables," published in 1784, which contain the very best specimens of his early woodcuts." This was the first publication to which Bewick attached his name.-ED.

1784 edition in fine state is so rare, that a copy has realised, at auction, £7, 10S. Bewick says (p. 60, "Memoir," 1862): "Some of the Fable cuts ('Gay,' 1779) were thought so much of by my master (Beilby), that he, in my name, sent impressions of a few of them to be laid before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and I obtained a premium." (Seven guineas, which he presented with intense gratification to his mother.) We have thus, by easy stages, travelled through the various phases of talent, progressively revealed in the earlier productions of Thomas Bewick, to the one now before us, the most important work produced by him previous to his well-known "British Quadrupeds," first published 1790; "British Birds," 1797, 1804; and his large edition of "Esop's Fables," 1818 (each work embellished with his inimitable and ever-pleasing vignettes). Examples from some of these and other works follow.

"The Chillingham Wild Bull."-Bewick's large engraving of this subject, with border, has realised twenty guineas. See Jackson on Wood-Engraving." A fine copy on vellum, now in the South Kensington Museum, had been purchased for fifty guineas.-ED.