I have heard those who loved the country, and loved it because they knew it, say that the opening of Bewick was a new era in their lives.


WILLIAM HOWITT - The Rural Life of England 1844

Bewick's `talepieces', as he called them, are records of rural life that range from boys' pranks to village funerals; some are portraits of living contemporaries, others show the natural functions of man and beast that no doubt made Ruskin despair of Bewick's `love of ugliness'. These were his relaxation from the equally detailed accuracy of his depictions of animals and birds that fuelled the passion for natural history then developing in Britain.

The engraver was by no means an unlettered countryman: his friends included radical booksellers and printers, and he had a wide correspondence. This Fyfield edition provides a general biographical introduction, and indicates Bewick's place in the artistic and intellectual developments of his time. The engravings are chiefly vignettes and tailpieces from the General History of Quadrupeds and the History of British Birds, with some examples from the work of his apprentices.

The editor of this selection, Robyn Marsack, is an editor and translator living in Glasgow. She has also edited Edmund Blunden's Selected Poems for Carcanet.