jamin West, P.R.A. His death prevented the completion of the plate, but his equally eminent successor, William Sharp, finished the work as we now see it. Woollett is described by Smith as "a little man;" he died at the somewhat early age of fifty. He was buried in the churchyard at Old St. Pancras, where a plain tombstone marks the spot, upon which is sculptured the following inscription:" William Woollett, Engraver to His Majesty, was born at Maidstone, in Kent, upon the 16th of August, 1735. He died on the 23rd, and was interred in this place on the 28th day of May, 1785. Elizabeth Woollett, widow of the above, died December 15, 1819. Aged 73 years." In this crowded place of sepulture the tomb is not easy to find, without due direction. It stands beside the chancel, on the north side. The graveyard is thick with monuments, and has always been a favourite place of interment with Catholics, from the fact of its being one of the oldest religious foundations in Middlesex. Woollett is not the only name connected with the Arts in this place. Ravenet, the engraver, Scheemakers, the sculptor, and Samuel Cooper, the celebrated miniature painter, as already stated, are all buried here.

Some admirers of the eminent engraver, wishing to see a more important memorial to his memory than this at St. Pancras, subscribed for a public monument, and placed it rather strangely in the west cloisters of Westminster Abbey. It was executed by Banks, the Royal Academician, and is inscribed simply with the date of Woollett's birth and death, and the epithet "Incisor Excellentissimus" beneath the bust. A more ambitious labour is below it is an allegory, representing the genius of Engraving

handing down to posterity the works of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, whilst Fame is distributing them to the four quarters of the globe. Woollett is at work engraving from a picture before him, but he is surrounded with so many nudities on all sides, that he is lost in the crowd of "allegoricals." The sculptor appears to have had his misgivings as to its being understood by the ordinary spectator, and has luckily left a key to the whole in our vernacular; the Latin term, which tells of his ability, would do as well for an eminent surgeon. The whole thing is a mistake.

Woollett's earnest and laborious life passed quietly in his own workroom. Engravers have less of "incident" in their career than any other class of artists. Few persons know the continuous labour, sometimes of a most wearisome and monotonous kind, that must be unsparingly given for months together to a large copper-plate in its preliminary stages. Human patience, in its supreme perfection, is necessary for the task. The amateur who glories over the exquisite prints in his portfolio, scarcely thinks of the wearisome application of years necessary to complete his valued gems. Less healthy than prison labour, the engraver prosecutes his art, "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd," in his studio, and pores over his plate until health, and sometimes eyesight, is a total wreck. His crown is often one of martyrdom. The Arts exact their victims as well as other professions. Woollett lost one-third of the life allotted to man. If the connoisseur thought of the artist as well as of the artist's work, and gave one glance at the events of his career, he would discover the sunshine that

delights him in the picture was often produced amid the clouds and darkness of a chequered life.

The two plates by Woollett which have received the highest commendation of foreign amateurs, are "The Death of General Wolfe," and "The Battle of La Hogue," from the pictures by Benjamin West: these works have never been surpassed by any engraver. His best portraits are those of George III., after Ramsay, and of Rubens, after Vandyck.

ATURE is a grateful mistress to her votaries, and

there is no instance of the artist who has studied her

beauties, and honestly depicted them, being unrewarded by Fame. Bewick is a prominent example; he studiously and perseveringly devoted himself to this study, and the celebrity he won in his life has increased since his death; all modern

U

refinements in the art of wood engraving cannot eclipse or rival the simple truth and vigour of his woodcuts

"And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne."

Thomas Bewick was born in 1753, at Cherry-burn, about twelve miles west of Newcastle, and received his earliest education at Ovingham, on the opposite bank of the river Tyne, Northumberland. His father rented a landsale colliery at Mickley-bank, in the same township, and he assisted him in his labour, having consequently that privation of education which a poor man's son has always to contend against. The lad never lost a chance of improvement, and in good weather or bad walked to his school whenever he could be spared, and noted those bits of nature in his lonely journeys that won him fame in after-life.

Bewick's taste for drawing developed itself very early, and determined his father to apprentice him to an engraver of Newcastle, Mr. R. Beilby, who appears to have taken all classes of engravers' work, from initials on tea-spoons, and names on doorplates, up to copper-plates for books; but his ability was but rarely in demand for the latter. In this employ Bewick did not labour long, for in 1768, one year after his apprenticeship, Dr. Hutton wishing to illustrate his "Treatise on Mensuration with woodcuts, such as he had seen executed in London, applied to Beilby for them; and young Bewick, having made some attempts in the art, was encouraged to persevere, and to him was entrusted the work he entered upon it with enthusiasm, and succeeded, although he had difficulties of all kinds to contend against, no